Accountability based on reading scores will only demoralize teachers who are trying hard in disadvantaged schools. A better response to reading failure would include improved teacher training and placement, ability grouping, reduced class size, adequate specialist support, and kindergarten reading. PS 209 in Queens utilizes several of these…

Compared 51 seventh-graders considered at-risk for school failure with 51 classmates. Students with a history of school failure, although of normal intelligence, were found to be significantly less intellectually, academically, and affectively competent than their more successful peers and were rated by their teachers as significantly less able to…

A process was developed to intensively and intrusively counsel students who were readmitted to the College of Charleston with academic deficiencies. The process included counseling to assess the students' attitudes toward returning followed by a contract to be signed by the students. (MLW)

Explains the difference between everyday thinking and academic thinking. Maintains that children who experience academic learning problems may rely too much on everyday thinking skills. Relates examples of this problem in reading, mathematics, and science. (JDH)

Six studies were reported questioning the conclusions of Covington and Omelich that pride in success, shame in failure, and positive self-esteem are more closely linked with ability ascriptions than with effort. The research demonstrated that affective intensity is in part determined by the perceived importance of the task. (BS)

The findings of surveys concerning the attitudes and behavior of students in China are presented. Studies investigated the ideology of middle school students; youth's ideals, motivations, and interests; middle school students' dislike for politics classes; the education of only children; academic decline of junior high students; and guidance…

Study showed that levels of repetition and dropping out in the primary schools of 121 countries in Africa, Asia and Oceania, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe and the USSR from 1970 to 1980 remain very high. This educational wastage is costing a great deal of money. (RM)

Male and female subjects from low and middle-upper socioeconomic groups were asked to explain their academic success or failure. Few sex or social class differences were found, with most subjects attributing success to internal, medium stable, and controllable causes. (GC)

This report is the outcome of a 1-day conference organized by the Southwark Black Education Group (London, England) Southwark Council for Community Relations, documents concerns of the black community about the exclusion of black students from the schools, and presents some practices that have been applied successfully in some schools to improve…

What should educators do with students who do not meet standards? Ideas and strategies that educators can use to answer this question are outlined in this book. Rather than relying on forced social promotion, schools can and should offer students a variety of helpful options, such as remaining in the same classroom with the same teacher for…

This report examines the performance of students facing the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) policy to end social promotion in 1999. As the third group to face CPS promotional test cutoffs, they received more programmatic support than previous students. An afterschool program was expanded considerably, and many more at-risk students were required to…

Investigates changes of the student population with academic difficulty at the College of the Canyons. More specifically, this fall 2002 study investigates trends of the student population with academic difficulty over time, demographic changes of the population over time, and the impacts of an academic intervention workshop. Outlines the…

When the educational system in Ontario, Canada, moved toward a child-centered philosophy, the onus for failure was placed on the child and his or her home environment. This philosophy penalized children from working-class and non-English-speaking homes. Arguments in the nature-nurture controversy are reviewed. (PP)

Research regarding the promotion or retention of students has shown consistently that non-promotion is not an aid to pupil achievement, personal development, or motivation. Alternative strategies for dealing with underachievers are discussed. (PP)

Discusses how children from certain social backgrounds come not to succeed in schooling at the same rate as other children, examining explanations that have been posited since the 1950s. Calls for greater recognition among educators that children's social and cultural experiences affect their communicative styles and, thus, their learning. (GC)