This preliminary study examines the perceptions of mentoring relationships between cooperating teachers and student teachers as they impact practicum success or failure. Student teachers (N=74) and cooperating teachers (N=13) at 2 teacher preparation sites were asked to respond either orally or in writing to 3 questions: (1) When you think of a…

The number of black children "excluded" each month from schools in England and Wales is greatly out of proportion to their relative enrollment. Exclusion includes suspension for a fixed or indefinite term or expulsion from a particular school, and can include in-school exclusions of isolation. The term "black children" is taken…

Prompted by repeated failure on a required English language proficiency test by a large proportion of undergraduates, educators at Cardinal Stritch College (Wisconsin) conducted a study to determine predictors of failure or success on the test, and whether revision of course placement standards should be considered to improve test performance.…

This study examined the metacognitive awareness and perceived attributions for academic outcomes for a population of at-risk college students. Participants in this study were 78 university students who, as a condition of re-admittance to the university, were required to enroll in an academic support course. All participants had a grade point…

A study was undertaken to identify cultural, linguistic, and family factors affecting the academic performance of four Chinese students in the United States. Subjects were eighth-grade students who had come to the United States 3 to 5 years earlier, all native Mandarian speakers and all enrolled in a public school bilingual program where they had…

Using data from the same source as that employed in Herrnstein and Murray's book, "The Bell Curve," this study reexamined links between the test scores of mothers and children, paying close attention to what the scores measure and whether these measurements mean the same things for blacks and whites. The study replicated Herrnstein and…

This report provides a brief review of literature on at-risk students and implications for a study being conducted by the Pacific Region Educational Laboratory (PREL). The study aims to identify factors that put students at-risk of failure within the present system of public high schools in the Pacific region. Although numerous studies present a…

Based on personal narratives, this paper describes Latino children's school experience and suggests home-school collaboration for improving Latino children's education. Latino children begin school as confident, eager, and enthusiastic learners. But well before the third grade, many Latino students begin to experience academic problems and…

This study was conducted to examine attributions that teachers hold for students' academic success and failure, and the relationship between these attributions and teaching level and teacher perceptions of efficacy. Elementary (N=123), middle (N=55), and high school teachers (N=62) were surveyed; attributional data were gathered through the…

This ERIC Digest reports on the educational aspirations of rural youth compared with students living in urban and suburban areas. Research indicates that in comparison to urban youth, rural young people felt their parents were much more supportive of their taking full-time jobs, attending trade schools, or entering the military rather than…

This book addresses the patterns of school failure that are often faced by subordinated minority groups in the United States by presenting a socioacademic framework based on the notion that all groups can have comparable access to quality schooling, can realize comparable participation in the schooling, and can derive comparable education benefits…

Past attempts to develop an explanatory model for African-American school achievement have focused disproportionately on failure. But if one considers the long and persistent denial and limiting of educational opportunity to African Americans, from slavery to the present, and African Americans' corresponding achievements, the historically and…

School failure in elementary school students from low income families has been a serious problem in Brazilian public schools for many years. A number of studies were implemented in an effort to reduce the incidence of school failure. One set of studies focusing on teachers' causal perceptions revealed a combination of socio-economic determinism…

The Austin (Texas) Independent School District has been researching the dropout issue for several years and has studied the implementation of the mandated Texas at-risk criteria to identify at-risk students. Having identified students at risk, the district followed them for 4 years (1987-88 to 1990-91) to determine the accuracy of the initial…

The claim that the incidence of school failure can be greatly reduced by increasing kindergarten entrance age from 57 to 60 months was investigated in three related studies. In the first study, subjects ranging in school entrance age from 57 to 68 months were drawn from five elementary schools in an urban lower socioeconomic area. A total of 114…