Several challenges characterize the special education profession. The literature is replete with reports of high levels of stress, burnout, and attrition among special educators; the lack of a sufficient number of fully qualified teachers; and dissatisfaction with the gap that exists between research-based effective practices and the daily…

Forty-three children participated in a longitudinal study of mastery motivation. Children's levels of mastery motivation (persistence) and cognitive functioning were measured at ages 2 and 8. In addition, academic achievement was measured at age 8. Task persistence was stable across time for girls only, but maternal reports of mastery motivation…

In spite of substantial investment in retention in Indiana higher education, there have been only a few well-designed studies that evaluate the effects of these interventions.

It is difficult to retain teachers who work in isolated communities, in very poor communities and communities where parental levels of education are not high. This paper describes the creation of a "New Teacher Academy" in one such unstable school district. Working closely with the new teachers in the district, a program was created based on peer…

If pressed to provide a predictor of academic success, most people would choose socioeconomic status (SES). SES is a strong predictor when one looks at averages, but everyone knows that there are individual students of high wealth who are academic disasters and students of low wealth who are academic marvels. Wayne Hoy and colleagues, in numerous…

Back in 1983, the National Commission on Excellence on Education issued a dire warning: The United States' "once unchallenged, pre-eminence in commerce, industry, science, and technological innovation is being overtaken by competitors throughout the world." Policy observers say such calls have been a leitmotif in the national discourse on…

The Model Science Lab, a constructivist approach to teaching, strengthens urban science teachers' teaching practice. The retention rate of Houston science teachers who took part in the program was found to be very high and the cost of the Model Science Lab has proven less expensive per student than most other professional development options.

This study examined teachers' perceptions of their jobs and teacher turnover through an analysis of data from the National Center for Education Statistics Schools and Staffing Survey and Teacher Follow-Up Survey. Our analysis suggests that student discipline problems were a major reason for teachers' dissatisfaction with their jobs, second only to…

This paper discusses the results of the first comprehensive longitudinal study of qualification retention, completion and progression in tertiary education in New Zealand. Of the cohort of domestic students which started a qualification at a public tertiary education provider in 1998, 40% had gained a qualification by the end of 2002, 9% were…

This paper examines teachers' sense of vocation and their values at the outset and in the middle of their careers, through reference to three small research projects and to the continuing tradition of research into teachers' narrative accounts and interpretations of their values in relation to their work. Each of the projects worked with teachers…

A very different world is evolving at a breathtaking pace. America's future is headed toward an information-based economy in which new jobs require some postsecondary education. The nation is depending on community colleges to be the linchpin to produce an essential, highly skilled workforce. However, America is not close to meeting that…

This study examined the persistence of early emerging aberrant behavior in 13 preschool children with developmental disabilities. The severity of aberrant behavior was assessed every 6 months over a 3-year period. Teachers completed the assessments using the Aberrant Behavior Checklist [Aman, M. G., & Singh, N. N. (1986). "Aberrant…

The authors examined whether the perception of the university environment mediated the relationship between ethnic identity and persistence attitudes of Latino college students. Participants were 175 Latino college students who attended a primarily White university. The results supported the hypothesized mediating role of the university…

This article examines the job attitudes of people who hold more than one job. Satisfaction, stress, and organizational (continuance and affective) commitment were assessed for both primary and secondary jobs for 83 full-time workers who held two jobs concurrently. Consistency between job constructs across jobs was negligible, except for…

The objective of the present studies was to evaluate the self-regulatory properties of strong "oughts" as they relate to the academic achievement of elementary school students. Across three studies with typical elementary school students and students with learning problems, results indicated that strong oughts: (a) were associated with avoidance…