Peoria's efforts with the development and implications of a Minimum Competency Testing (MCT) program are described, including the program model used, numbers of high school seniors and seventh graders who passed the pilot test sequence, and views on the advantages, disadvantages, and effectiveness of the MCT program. (Editor/SJL)

Discusses three of the authors' experiences as high school seniors serving as peer tutors and assessors for eighth graders' science portfolios in a science class that integrated a series of year-long writing activities using portfolios into an eighth-grade conceptual science class. (SR)

Reports findings of a study in four Nova Scotia public schools of twelfth grade students' information seeking strategies when using the Internet as an information source. Discusses student's knowledge of World Wide Web search engines; how students acquired Internet information seeking knowledge; and how students perceive their ability to locate…

Hypothesized that students who continue full-time study after high school have higher levels of career maturity, psychological well-being, and academic achievement while at school. Surveyed 254 Australian seniors and 132 of these students 9 months after graduation. Found that students who proceeded to full-time further study scored higher in all…

Describes two writing activities (based on S. I. Hayakawa's discussion of biased thinking in his book "Language in Thought and Action") that are designed to enable students to recognize and become sensitive to closemindedness. (KEH)

Reports on a comparative study of a traditional and an alternative course offered in Victoria, Australia. Student attitudes provided the indices to changes in students' perceptions of themselves and their courses over one-year period. Students from the alternative course showed a greater increase in self-esteem, higher satisfaction with school,…

Finds that, among 491 rural tenth and twelfth grade students: (1) over 60 percent expected to attend college; (2) most aspired to occupations with higher status than their parents'; and (3) students' plans for advanced education were strongly related to parental expectations. Contains 18 references. (SV)

Grade-12 results of the Second International Mathematics Study for Belgium, New Zealand, Thailand, and Japan suggest that when single-sex schooling is relatively scarce in a country, it influences student achievement by attracting students with unique characteristics. Achievement effects may be positive or negative depending on the function of…

Discusses the Project 2061 benchmarks, statements of what all students should know or be able to do in science, mathematics, and technology by the end of grades 2, 5, 8, and 12. (MKR)

Describes the administration of the U.S. Test of Economic Literacy (TEL) to eleventh and twelfth grade students in the United Kingdom and the United States. Compares British and U.S. test results. Reports that British students performed better than their U.S. counterparts. Discusses differences between British and U.S. research in economics…

Discusses the challenges of teaching high school geography in a way that enables students to develop an informed, spatial view of the world. Discusses the High School Geography Project and its effect on geography instruction. Suggests a map drawing exercise for students to demonstrate the importance of mental maps. (DK)

Used Thematic Apperception Test to assess complexity of representations of people, affect-tone of relationship paradigms, capacity for emotional investment in relationships and moral standards, and understanding of social causality. Findings from 71 second graders and fifth graders (Study 1) and from 49 ninth graders and twelfth graders (Study 2)…

Differences related to formal reasoning abilities were studied with 227 12th graders in different sections (science, economics, and a unified section of common mathematics and science curricula) of four schools in Cyprus. Observed achievement differences did not correspond to differences found with cognitive measures. Results cast doubt on the…

Compares students' perceptions of democracy through two similar class activities presented in second- and twelfth-grade classes. Finds that both groups of students defined democracy within their own contexts and settings; one difference was that the older students' perceptions and the issues they dealt with were broader. (CMK)

This document is a study guide for Stephen B. Oates biography of Nat Turner, "The Fires of Jubilee." The book is a practical reading vehicle for introducing Nat Turner to secondary students in grades 11 and 12. Oates divides his work into four parts, which could provide the basis for four reading assignments, although the sections are…