This article identifies as problems both social promotion and minimum competency decisions. The author analyzes the need for attention to individual differences and proposes that educational excellence within a compulsory system can be achieved only when standards are adjusted in accordance with individual differences. (MM)

Discusses problems associated with reform of secondary school curricula in Kenya in the period immediately after independence. Follows the course of two innovations--School Mathematics of East Africa (SMEA) and the Africanization of the literature curriculum--and discusses various reasons for their failure and for Kenya's continued dependence on…

This comparative academic performance study of direct entry secondary school students and college transfer students admitted to Simon Fraser University (SFU) was conducted to determine whether differences in university course grades between the two groups still exists when controlling for secondary school performance. (Contains 2 figures, 1 table,…

This paper reports the findings of a 2-year project based in the UK, which examined the perceptions and beliefs of disenfranchised pupils, their parents, school practitioners, and educational professionals about the causes and dynamics of disaffection from school. The study employed mainly qualitative methods (interviews and focus groups) to look…

Examines two policy interventions meant to improve educational opportunity to less privileged Kenyans: the so-called abolition of school fees in primary schools and institution of primary boarding schools in arid and semiarid areas. Finds that these and related government policies were in fact both cause and effect of educational failure. (BRR)

A described intervention evaluates the effect of both a psychology course and the active service component of tutoring upon alienated underachieving adolescents and the elementary school pupils who receive their services. Results indicate that both the class and tutoring effectively improved the academic self-concept of the students. (Author/PN)

Maintains that teachers and parents must realize that minority children are capable of learning and becoming successful adults and that it is time to stop offering excuses and demand excellence of all students, including minorities. (Author/JM)

The Kubler-Ross Model of the Stages of Dying is used to understand the emotional adjustment parents must make when dealing with their academically nonperforming children. Understanding parents' feelings enables educators to better work with the child having problems. (JAC)

Nigerian anthropologist John Ogbu examines the academic failure of minority groups within the context of American society and draws comparisons to minority group education in five other cultures. (MKM)

This study identified risk factors associated with unsuccessful discharge status of 134 students with serious emotional/behavioral disorders enrolled in a secondary-level, therapeutic day-treatment program. Major risk factors found were student substance abuse, involvement with juvenile services, and family living status. Application of…

Tested the basic hypothesis that failure experiences at school increase the likelihood of aversive parent-child interaction after school. Subjects were 254 elementary school students. Found that children who rated more academic failure events at school described parents as more disapproving after school, but this effect was only partially mediated…

Themes during the 1990s included the bootstrapping effects between oral and literate language, importance of supporting emergent literacy, parallels between oral language impairment and academic failure, and challenges in facilitating language learning. This article addresses questions posed in Part I related to use of computer technology for…

In this article, a gifted student with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) describes his difficulties in preschool, elementary school, junior high, high school, and college. An analysis by an Advanced Placement English teacher follows each description. A list of suggestions for working with gifted students with ADHD is provided.…

Discusses successes and failures in the field of instructional technology and suggests methods to design more appropriate systems that would present fewer barriers to adoption. Topics discussed include educational television; videotext; video technology; audiovisual aids; teleconferencing; computer assisted instruction; interactive video; CD-ROM;…

Impacts of the parents' divorce and the student's academic potential and drug use on non-completion of high school were examined using 3 methods of structural equation modeling with latent variables. Data were collected from 706 adolescents (in grades 10 through 12). Maximum likelihood, asymptotically distribution-free, and categorical variable…