The purpose of this study was to determine how various factors influence student achievement on the physical science EOCE so that students are provided every opportunity to be successful. An understanding of influences such as the type of mathematics course students are taking, participating in block scheduling, participating in freshmen…

Self-efficacy is the belief in one's capacity to perform and accomplish goals. Specifically, academic self-efficacy refers to a student's perception of their ability to engage and successfully complete academic tasks. Self-efficacy affects students' behavioral choices, motivation, thought patterns and responses, perception of control, and…

In the United States, approximately 2.5 million students are diagnosed as having a learning disability and the majority of those children are placed in special education because of an inability to read as expected. As a result of this diagnosis, these children may be placed in special education classrooms--classrooms that are separate from the…

This study describes teachers' experiences of success and failure in teaching through interviews. The analytical framework for this study was based on Activity Theory (Leon'tev, 1978), and the research methods were developed by Herzberg et al. (1959). The inclusion of factors identified by Seligman (2006) and Maslach (1982) allowed for…

Teaching a child to read is one of the greatest gifts we can give to that individual and to society as a whole, and yet many students exit school without the necessary literacy skills. For decades, research has demonstrated the importance of phonemic awareness in the development of the alphabetic principle, a prerequisite for competent reading,…

Too many of our nation's youth have failed to complete high school. Determining why so many of our nation's students fail to graduate is a complex, multi-faceted problem and beyond the scope of any one study. The study presented herein utilized a thirteen-step mixed methods model developed by Leech and Onwuegbuzie (2007) to demonstrate within a…

The discussion about rigor is not new. Ever since the release of A Nation at Risk (1983) the debate about the quality of American schools has continued. Adoption of No Child Left Behind (2001) raised the debate to a new level. For the first time schools were held accountable for the achievement of every child, not just the most capable. Across the…

To address the issue of pre-service teachers being under-prepared for work in multicultural and impoverished environments in America's urban schools, teacher education programs have taken steps to improve diversity-oriented curricula and provide relevant fieldwork experience. However, research indicates that a large proportion of teacher…

In December 2011, the Sierra Health Foundation board of directors approved a framework for a new youth development initiative. The framework built upon the foundation's recently concluded REACH Youth Development Program and incorporated findings and recommendations from the highly regarded "Healthy Youth/Healthy Regions" and…

Every teacher hits a patch where each day seems to bring the same struggles, sometimes with the same kids, sometimes with different ones. At these moments, teachers may feel like everything is about to derail. How they cope with these behavioral problems, especially at the start of the year, can set the tone for success or failure in the months…

This study has been conducted to show that there is a recent trend in engineering colleges in India that students who are considered to be highly intelligent show poor academic performance during their 1st year. This article is proposed to examine the role of motivation factors such as teaching methods and learning material in the academic…

This paper examines teachers' preexisting notion of the "weak" academic student, and the characteristics implicit in that stereotype. Extant literature demonstrates how the teacher's dichotomous conceptions of "strong" and "weak" academic students are predictive of scholastic success. The goal of this study was to…

Background: Previous work suggests that the expectation of failure is related to higher test anxiety and achievement goals grounded in a fear of failure. Aim: To test the hypothesis, based on the work of Elliot and Pekrun (2007), that the relationship between perceived competence and test anxiety is mediated by achievement goal orientations.…

The current study examined individual differences in children's phonological and visuospatial short-term memory as potential mediators of the relationship among attention problems and near- and long-term scholastic achievement. Nested structural equation models revealed that teacher-reported attention problems were associated negatively with…

One of the most important variables in the success of a business over time is the extent to which the organization develops innovative business strategies and has an agile culture that supports such innovation. This article describes ways of accomplishing both requirements.