Cites the failings of the National Institute of Education (NIE) and the reasons behind them, discusses the proper federal role in supporting educational research, and suggests developing alternative methods for providing leadership and funding so that the NIE can be abandoned. (PGD)

Grade 5-6 boys worked on a discrimination task under one of five conditions: no feedback; positive feedback following successes; positive feedback following failure; negative feedback following successes; and negative feedback following failures. Boys persisted longest on the task when they received either positive or negative feedback following…

Education majors completed questionnaires about student success or failure in hypothetical situations and their responses were categorized. Dimensions of the category scheme concerned the student (ability and effort), the situation (task difficulty and luck), and the teacher (experience and preparation). (CTM)

Recognizes the issue of nonpromotion as a reality that affects almost every public school. Suggests a simple, inexpensive, and promising remediation technique (modeled after the collegiate athletic practice of "redshirting") utilizing a semantic differential to change the focus of retention from negative inputs to positive outputs. (NEC)

The author refutes the findings of a study (EC 124 401) indicating a birthdate effect on readiness level and suggests that school psychologists and others should stop blaming chronological age for reading failure. (CL)

Points out that current alarmist rhetoric about widespread reading failure is not based on facts. (HOD)

The author describes his dismal experience as assistant principal in a large urban junior high school where few students, teachers, school board members, or administrators would admit the existence of problems associated with overcrowding, understaffing, low self-esteem, high turnover, inexperience, and poor morale, or cooperate sufficiently to…

Because different fear of success measurement instruments do not seem to tap the same underlying trait, factor analysis of this construct was inconclusive. The study's findings on anxiety, however, were clearer: anxiety significantly differentiates the sexes and is a negative predictor of both grade point average and ability. (Author/GC)

Documents characteristics of emotions in relation to action and self-perception. Argues that taking affect into account yields a different interpretation of successful achievement-change programs. Also clarifies the differences between ability and effort as perceived causes of success and failure. (Author/GC)

Provides a rebuttal to a television interview on the "Phil Donahue Show" in which John H. Richards suggested that many people suffer from an incurable disease called dyslexia and will never be able to read. Insists that with hard work, dyslexics can learn to read. (MKM)

The relationship between unipolar models of sex-role identity and situational cues on fear of success was investigated. Situational variables were of greater importance in affecting female response to female success. Some data indicated that general diffusion of sex-role identity rather than high femininity is related to avoidance of success.…

Extends the locus of control theory by distinguishing situation effects across three types of internal locus of control: more internal for success than failure, more internal for failure than success, equally internal for success and failure. (Author/RL)

Based on an attributional model of achievement-related behavior, success of a young person and failure of an old person (expected outcomes) were predicted to be attributed to stable causes. Results are discussed in terms of conditions under which negative stereotypes concerning competency of the elderly exert influence. (Author)

Critically reviews various models proposed to explain word recognition and proposes a new model that describes word processing as a gestalt phenomenon defined by the interaction of four types of context: linguistic, schematic, social, and strategic. Also discusses ways of defining good and poor readers. (GT)

The decline in students' writing skills is chronic rather than acute and is due to several factors: (1) little training is done in the teaching of writing; (2) little work in writing is done in the classroom due to class size; and (3) students often have no models to emulate. (MB)