This is the fourth periodic report on the programs and plans of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). It describes current programs aimed at meeting the needs posed by the National Education Goals and other educational policies, the future plans for the agency, and its major publications. In addition to updating the descriptions of…

Social, cultural, political, and organizational characteristics of urban schools that make them difficult settings for teachers are discussed. It is suggested that, while an emphasis on professional community would be beneficial for all students, it is particularly pressing for urban schools where other resources for school reform are limited.…

This paper reports the results of a 4-year longitudinal study of approximately 600 urban mathematics teachers who were surveyed to ascertain their attitudes regarding certain attributes of the profession of mathematics teaching, specifically: the use of the professional organization as a major referent, the belief in service to the public, the…

A 1984-85 study of Palau elementary students, who were pretested, instructed with a textbook and additional practice booklets, and posttested, revealed gains for every skill at every grade level. A 1986-87 study, using a series of 26 booklets representing a fairly complete math curriculum, showed that students using the experimental booklets…

In a 5-year longitudinal study, the home literacy environments of 60 preschool children in Canada were assessed. Over the preschool and early school experiences of these children, they were administered various measures of meta-literate awareness and later, standarized reading measures, to determine the nature of the home environment's influence…

Despite years of concern about the toxic effects of high lead exposure and recent knowledge about the less apparent effects of exposure to low doses of lead, a total of 3 to 4 million children in the United States are still being exposed to concentrations of lead that could compromise their cognitive and social development. This paper discusses:…

The purpose of this study was to compare the reading achievement of third graders who had attended kindergarten for one year with that of third graders who had been given two years of kindergarten. A review of the literature revealed that the majority of studies in this area showed that the practice of retaining students did not serve the intended…

Since 1985, the students in grades 2-8 in three selected elementary schools in Palau have been tested on basic math skills. This report describes the data collected in May 1993 and indicates the relative strengths and weaknesses of students at each grade level in each school. Major outcomes include: (1) the students at Harris School scored…

This book presents results of a longitudinal study of the effects of whole language instruction on six first- and second-grade African-American students at risk of failure. The book has three levels of meaning: how teachers engage children in genuine literacy, how the process of engaging in a literate community increases learning, and how truly…

A study examined adolescent and young mothers' parenting competence as a function of the quality of their relationship with their own mothers. The study focused on child-rearing in families of young African American mothers in which multigenerational patterns of caregiving and co-residence were prevalent. Data were derived from a longitudinal…

This report uses data from the 1989-90 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study and the 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study to examine the postsecondary experiences and outcomes of first-generation students relative to their peers. After an overview of the demographic, aspirational, and enrollment characteristics of…

Three early educational intervention programs designed to prevent mental retardation and to improve school readiness are profiled. The Abecedarian Project was begun as an experiment to test whether mental retardation, allegedly caused by inadequate environments, could be prevented by providing intensive preschool programs to children from birth to…

This monograph, based on college transcripts of 10,700 students included in the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS-72), examines how culturally literate is the generation that is now in its thirties and what people in that generation studied that exposed them to different cultures, societies, and intellectual…

This publication reports on the results of a 1992 survey of 80 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member libraries on their use of printers for recording references found in online public access catalog (OPAC) and CD-ROM searches. As was found in a 1990 survey on the same topic, only a small proportion of libraries reported that they charged…

Studies of child and adolescent life experiences have attempted to determine how certain situational and psychological factors interact to moderate the effects that stressful life events have on adjustment. In this study a prospective design was used to examine the effects of negative life events and locus of control on emotional well-being. A…