Reprints Thorndike's classic article which appeared in The Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. VIII, No. 6, June 1917, pp. 323-32. (VJ)

This follow-up study reports the failure-promotion experience of Kentucky first-graders of 1968-69 and relates their academic success or failure to their ages of entering first grade. The rate of first grade repeaters in Kentucky is disappointingly high and a youngster who attempts first grade twice is not substantially better off than he was the…

A look at the clinical work of a Student Health physician as it affects dropouts. (IR)

Suggests that an eclectic approach to teaching (selecting materials, methods, and styles to fit particular situations) will succeed in providing the best possible learning environments for children. Characteristics which identify eclectic instruction, including diagnostic teaching, oral reading, and individualized choices of materials, methods,…

Presents the following steps for the clinician to follow in determining consequential factors of reading disability: (1) identification, (2) assumption and rejection or acceptance, (3) discovery and explanation, and (4) prediction and verification. (CM)

A model of the manner in which environmental variations affect the life chances of specialist and generalist organizations was applied to a sample of restaurant organizations in 18 California cities. One finding was that specialist organizations are favored in fine-grained environments (i.e., when sales variations are nonseasonal). (Author/RM)

Identifies factors mental health executives (N=131) see as important barriers to their planning efforts. These executives can best be aided in their planning by actions which will clarify planning domains, insure that appropriate power and authority is vested in the executive, and emphasize planning efforts in innovative areas. (Author/JAC)

Examined relationships among self-regulatory behaviors, perceptions of social reinforcement from significant persons, and problem-solving performance of Black adolescents (N=33). Components of self-regulatory processes--self-reinforcement, self-evaluation, and self-monitoring--were interrelated highly. Perceptions of neither positive nor negative…

Experiments investigate hypothesis that vulnerable self-esteem internals and externals react more defensively to negative intellectual and personality feedback than congruent internals and externals. Suggested that consistently internal view of causation may increase stress in evaluative situations. Discusses implications for understanding…

Twenty-eight learned helpless children (ages 9-13) assessed as reading below grade level were randomly assigned to one of four reinforcement and attribution retaining treatments. Indirect and direct attribution retaining increased childrens' reading persistence and their attribution of failure on the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility scale…

Examines the history of the mathematics placement testing program used at the University of Houston Downtown Campus to screen entering students at registration. Discusses the remedial algebra courses required of students who do not pass the exam and analyzes the effectiveness of the program in reducing failure and attrition rates. (JP)