This case study of 215 high school students in Columbia Academy, an international school in Kobe, Japan, was conducted from 1980 to 1985 to examine the values students hold in relation to their demographic characteristics. The study, written by a faculty member of this school who also served on the Educational Policy Committee of the Board of…

Training of teaching assistants (TAs) in the Writing Program at the University of Massachusetts is described. Training prepares TAs for the responsibility of being the primary class instructors who design the curriculum, teach, and evaluate students with minimal supervision. Training sessions consist of an orientation workshop at the beginning of…

In an effort to understand the effect of a nurturing, supportive environment on children's understanding of poetry, a study was conducted involving the observation of 42 rural fifth and sixth grade students and their two teachers over a school year. During the course of the year the children were invited to respond to published, professional…

This book of readings presents 33 articles that address topics of importance to counselors who serve middle school students. It was written for counselors already working in middle schools and for individuals who are preparing for careers as middle school counselors. The book will also benefit both elementary school counselors who help children…

Alcohol and drug abuse were viewed as a clear way of demonstrating personal or social sophistication in a Canadian secondary school. Neither the school nor the local community had developed a strategy for dealing with the problem of substance abuse among the students. The program described in this report was designed to reduce the level of alcohol…

Spurred by a national dropout rate of 25 percent, educators are examining causes of leaving school early, identifying high risk students, and devising student retention programs. This paper profiles the potential dropout, describes 10 characteristics of effective student retention programs, and describes three exemplary programs in Colorado,…

This study investigated the potential relationships between selected self-reported health behaviors of middle school students and interacting factors, including parents, family life, social networks, and society at large. Sixth grade students (n=103) responded to five survey instruments: (1) Standard Albuquerque Public Schools Health Knowledge…

This digest reviews the issues of identity and adjustment faced by adolescent Southeast Asian refugees in the United States. Most teenagers from all the Southeast Asian ethnic groups have adopted the dress, hairstyles, and manners of American teenagers, yet their ethnic identity remains strong and specific. This is particularly true for refugees…

This study examined school-related strains that elementary school students encountered during the transition to middle school. A total of 120 students from two elementary schools completed the Early Adolescent School Role Strain Inventory during pretransition in the elementary school fifth grade, during early transition at the beginning of the…

Inservice training for school administrators is often characterized as sporadic rather than sustained, as topical rather then developmental, and as externally planned rather than internally developed and controlled. There is little evidence to suggest that much of current inservice activity contributes to significant improvement in administrators'…

This report presents findings from a national research and reporting program dealing with drug use and related attitudes of high school seniors. The major topics focus on the current prevalence of drug use among students and trends in drug use since 1975. Also reported are data on the school for first usage, trends in use at earlier grade levels,…

Peer influence on students has been of interest to sociologists for some time. But most studies of elementary classroom interaction have focused primarily on teacher-student interaction. A study of peer influence on other group members was designed to explain why students assigned to low ability groups became inattentive more frequently than…

In 1977, 8th and 12th grade students (n=889) from largely rural schools in 3 Idaho counties were surveyed as representive of both early and late stages of the teenage period to determine levels and patterns of liquor consumption. Respondents categorized themselves as nondrinkers (NDs), seldom drinkers (SDs), occasional drinkers (ODs), and frequent…

An analysis was made of selected factors influencing students to enroll in area postsecondary vocational schools in East, Middle, and West Tennessee. Four hundred forty-three students were surveyed concerning three broad areas of dependent variables: domestic environment, perceived opportunities, and assessment of program. Data were analyzed by…

As part of a year-long sociolinguistic study of pupil and teacher perceptions of classroom discourse, this study examined the possible effects of pupil status variables on pupil attention patterns. Subjects were 164 children and their teachers in six second, third, and fourth grade classrooms in a lower socioeconomic, multiethnic elementary…