This article describes a theoretically informed methodology for eliciting the voices of adolescent boys identified by their teachers and parents as reluctant leisure time readers. Similar methods have also been used to draw out the voices of the boys' parents to understand their efforts to guide and maintain their sons' literacy practices, within…

A growing body of research shows school connectedness to be a powerful predictor of adolescent health and academic outcomes. This study advances a theoretically grounded definition of school connectedness and triangulates qualitative and quantitative methods to assess contextual correlates to school connectedness in 8th, 10th, and 12th grade…

Findings from the recent OECD PISA studies highlight the need for the Hungarian school system to improve both effectiveness and equality. Hungarian 15-year-old students scored somewhat below or around the OECD average in the areas of reading, mathematical, and scientific literacy. In addition, students differ less in academic achievement within…

This paper reports and discusses the principal findings of an Australian study exploring the decisions of high achieving Year 10 students about taking physics and chemistry courses (Lyons, 2003). The study used a "multiple worlds" framework to explore the diverse background characteristics that previous quantitative research had shown…

In this study we examined how good and weak students of literature interact with short literary stories. We focused on differences in the use of cognitive and affective reading activities, and in the extent to which good and weak students adapt their activities to (parts of) the story they are reading. 19 Dutch tenth-grade students from 8 classes…

The Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Program (GEAR UP) is designed to provide assistance to low income students. The program provides discretionary grants for the purpose of increasing the readiness of low income students to attend and succeed in postsecondary education. The grants are up to six years in length and provide…

This practicum was designed to help college-bound sophomores make connections between English class and the world of work so that they could make informed decisions about college and career choices. The target population was 90 honors-level 10th grade English students on an interdisciplinary team. The setting was a predominately middle class,…

The Missouri Mastery and Achievement Tests (MMAT) were developed as a result of the Excellence in Education Act of 1985, which required the state department of education to identify core competencies and key skills in reading/language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies/civics and to test a sample of students annually. State-level data…

This document is one of a series that represents specific moments in history from which students focus on the meanings of landmark events. Students become aware that choices had to be made by real human beings, that those decisions were the result of specific factors, and that they set in motion a series of historical consequences. By analyzing…

This unit is one of a series that represents specific moments in history from which students focus on the meanings of landmark events. This unit explores Greece's most glorious century, the high point of Athenian culture. Rarely has so much genius been concentrated in one small region over such a short period of time. Students discover in studying…

Data from the fourth follow-up to the High School and Beyond survey were analyzed to identify patterns in the educational attainment, employment outcomes, and family formation of the 1980 sophomore class in 1992. Those members of the 1980 sophomore class who set high goals in high school tended to have higher average levels of educational…

The 1991 Manitoba Health Education Assessment consisted of the grade-4 health education test, a survey of grade-4 teachers, and the comparison of student performance in grades 5 and 10 from 1982 to 1991. The grade-4 sample consisted of 10% of students from English language schools, all students in Franco-Manitoban schools, and 25% of all students…

A pilot study was conducted to field test instruments that could be used to assess, evaluate, and improve curricula to be used in the Agri Tech Prep 2000 (ATP 2000) project. The project features a 4-year tech prep program linking New York high school and postsecondary curricula to prepare students for careers in agriculture or acceptance into a…

This report examines the role of schools and "outside" social and economic influences in young people's lives, focusing particularly on the impact that participation in extracurricular activities has on racial tensions and students' self-images. It is based on data collected from a national sample of tenth graders in the 1980 "High…

Every two seconds somewhere in the world a child dies from a preventable disease. Millions lack access to safe drinking water. Smoking, alcoholism, and drug abuse are on the increase in developing nations. In the United States, experts estimate that one out of every ten people, a majority of them women and children, go to bed hungry, and the…