Condensed from "Illinois Schools Journal, XLIX, (Summer 1969), 130-133.

A discussion of the many reasons why some educational innovations fail, and suggestions for bringing about success. (Author/HB)

Deans of Instruction or Presidents of 94 junior colleges were asked what percentage of their faculty used a non-punitive A, B, C, W (withdraw) grading system, with no failing or F grade. The data shows a growing interest in such grading practices. There are three main arguments in favor of non-punitive grading: (1) an F grade is a double penalty,…

Contrary to lamentations concerning "recent" decline of public education, there is evidence that the public school began to self-destruct as early as the third decade of this century. Testing and progressive attempts to expand programs and diversify activities and curriculum actually undermined the standardization, consolidation and centralization…

Management by objectives (MBO) has generally not succeeded because of what appears to be an inherent conceptual problem. If MBO is to leave us any kind of legacy, it will be to serve as a guideline to the mistakes new concepts should avoid. Available from Business Horizons, School of Business, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405; sc $3.00.…

Seven pitfalls to avoid when designing training programs using television. (LS)

Individuals with low working memory capacity (e.g. preschoolers) are more prone to goal neglect, or a failure to execute a goal even though it is understood. We examined the role of goal neglect in performance on the Dimensional Change Card Sort by including 'redundant' cards that could be sorted without attending to the rules, as well as the…

This author speculates about who benefits from school failure. The article is grounded in the author's personal reflections over 50 years of involvement with urban schools, teachers, students, and administrators. He provides an in-depth critique of identifying the causes of school failure in the personal shortcomings of children and their families…

This research focuses on the relation between color and psychological functioning, specifically, that between red and performance attainment. Red is hypothesized to impair performance on achievement tasks, because red is associated with the danger of failure in achievement contexts and evokes avoidance motivation. Four experiments demonstrate that…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the response of kindergarten students at-risk for reading failure to a two-tiered vocabulary intervention delivered in the context of a shared storybook reading activity employing rich and robust vocabulary instruction. Rich vocabulary instruction is defined as explicit vocabulary instruction in which…

To be effective instructional leaders, school administrators need an understanding of the specific educational and social issues of their students (Matthews & Crow, 2003). Migrant students are no exception. Without an understanding of migrant students and their unique needs, they may overlook critical accommodations or necessary practices that…

The current investigation studied the effects of a computer software program of the oral reading fluency and comprehension of eight, first grade students. These students were identified as being either "at-risk" or "some-risk" for reading failure on the DIBELS oral reading fluency winter benchmark assessment. A multiple probe…

Little is known about the relative effects of post-secondary learning services for students with learning disabilities. We compared outcomes for students with learning disabilities who selected to: (1) take an academic learning success course (course-intervention), (2) have regular individual interventions (high-intervention) or (3) use services…