Although policymakers have recently tended to call for longer school days or years, such reforms might be ineffective or counterproductive if they fail to take into account the interactions between time and other determinants of learning, including the role of the student in allocating time. Research has shown that the amount of learning is a…

This bulletin reviews selected research on the relationship of increased instructional time to student achievement. Different ways of increasing time are discussed, including lengthening the school year and the school day, reallocating time within the day to allow more time for instruction, improving teachers' management skills, and increasing…

To explore the relationship between time and school learning, this paper defines the three kinds of learning time identified by researchers--allocated time, time-on-task, and academic learning time--and relates them to curriculum development. The author cites evidence that time-on-task is related to student achievement and describes two…

The relevance of homework in today's schools is explored in this bulletin. Following the introduction, chapter 1 examines the effect of homework on academic achievement and concludes that there is a lack of agreement on the benefits of homework and on the amount of time students should spend on it. Chapter 2 describes homework practices in some…

This document analyzes responses to questions included in a national assessment of knowledge of U.S. history and geography in an attempt to determine the relationship between study habits and academic performance. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1994 asked 4th-, 8th-, and 12th-grade students specific questions regarding…

Elements of economic production theory are applied to the relation between time and student learning. The analysis takes into account that individual students matter, that students are often taught in classes, and that jointness in production is the rule rather than the exception. The values teachers place on the different possible educational…

Four groups of students were compared on cumulative grade point average, total credit hours attempted, and differences between predicted and actual grade point average (GPA). The four groups of students were formed by the semester in which they declared a major: students declaring in the third semester made up one group, those declaring in the…

Homework assignments are viewed as a kind of resource allocation which should be included in assessing a school's educational resources. Three questions are addressed in this study: average time allocations for student exposure to learning resources in class, through homework, and in total; extent of the variations in these averages; and…

This research brief presents data on transfer students in the University of Wisconsin (UW) system, with emphasis on student access, enrollment, and outcomes. Among the findings are the following: (1) The number of transfer students enrolled in the UW system reached a 10-year high of 9,684 in fall 1996, followed by a slight decline in fall 1997;…

School board members can use board policies to set the direction for effective instructional management. Effective schools appear to have these characteristics in common: (1) strong instructional leadership by the principal, (2) a safe and orderly atmosphere, (3) high expectations of all students, (4) schoolwide emphasis on basic skills…

The monograph provides an integrative review on the environmental and instructional factors that appear to be most conducive to the complex, interactive, and interdependent process of learning. Ten instructional strategies empirically documented to have a critical impact on a student's ability to learn are discussed in detail. They are: (1) The…

In 1987-88, the Commission on Athletics' Research Committee of the California Association of Community Colleges undertook a study of the effects of the requirement that college athletes maintain a 2.0 grade point average (GPA), the status of women's sports, the use of part-time coaches, and the types of courses used to satisfy transfer…

Presented are abstracts and abstractors' analyses of 10 studies related to one or more aspects of teacher education and 2 studies in a "miscellaneous" category. Analyses in the first section (teacher education) are on studies of: the use of wait-time and its effect on science achievement; teacher competencies; the influence of teacher…

Eight papers are presented that describe the daily experience of White American children in grades 5 through 9. Each paper examines a segment of daily activity (e.g., schoolwork, talking, sports) and the associated affective states for 401 participants to provide a picture of the life space of early adolescence. (SLD)

This document is a collection of 12 issues of a monthly newsletter on public policy and postsecondary education opportunity trends. Each issue contains one or two main articles providing an analysis of research on trends in postsecondary education. The major articles in these issues are: (1) "Children, Family Income and College…