This article focuses on (a) the types and incidence of casualties reported for encounter groups; (b) participant, group, and leader variables associated with negative outcome, (c) procedures for minimizing casualties, and (d) research considerations. (Author/AM)

Retention and social promotion are expensive failures. History and research show that retention and social promotion are ineffective in improving student learning and achievement. The alternative to these failed strategies is to personalize the learning environment. Research indicates six promising strategies for personalization, thereby reducing…

This paper is about improving mathematics achievement among the lowest attaining students in some mainstream secondary school through focusing on thinking in ordinary lessons. The research is funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation (grant numbers 01-1415 & 02-1424) and involves three academics and nine teacher-researchers. A research perspective…

This study investigated whether a particular grade in school would prove to be critical in the development of underachievement in 100 high school students identified as intellectually gifted, where 18 of the students were identified as underachieving. Data were collected on each student, including IQ scores, age identified as gifted, gender, final…

One of the most threatening events that causes anxiety in students today is testing. When students develop an extreme fear of performing poorly on an examination, they experience test anxiety. Test anxiety is a major factor contributing to a variety of negative outcomes including psychological distress, academic underachievement, academic failure,…

This paper reviews the student teacher failure literature and describes a study on the causes of failure, noting implications for teacher education institutions. The study involved a systematic analysis of the files of student teachers who failed at one university from 1994-97. Failure of student teaching was defined as either choosing to quit…

This brief synthesizes seven papers commissioned for a series of meetings convened by Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning to discuss raising the achievement of low-performing students. The purpose of the brief is to identify some causes of the low performance of marginalized students, and then offer research-based solutions for what…

Cohorts of entering freshmen were tracked over time to determine whether the suspension policy at Montana State University (MSU), Bozeman was having the intended effect on academic success, defined as degree completion. The university's current policy requires students to be suspended after receiving grade point averages (GPAs) of lower than 2.00…

How one school system went about improving student self-concepts is the subject of this article. What the schools did has been successful and the future holds even more promise, writes the author. (Editor)

Suggests that evaluations of educational input-output studies frequently overlook some basic characteristics of the nation's schools as a whole, which, when conjoined with economic theory, permit viewing the results of these studies as neither counter intuitive nor damaging to the education profession. (Author/DN)

Discusses some historical developments in the interaction of psychology and education, and shows how developments in early education research describe the workings of an applied, experiment-oriented relationship between social and behavioral science and society. (Author/JM)

Ten patterns or syndromes of classroom behavior of 337 high school girls were derived and analyzed for relationship to academic success or failure among delinquent and regular students; it was found that in both settings failure could not be viewed in only academic or cognitive terms, but as an indication of failure of the total child to cope with…

It is in the classroom of the graded school that the underlying mismatch between functions and forms occurs in American public education. (Author)