Contributors review the advantages and disadvantages of essay contests. Considers typical essay topics, evaluation criteria, contests as motivational techniques, the validity of the essay form, and contests' impact on writers' audience awareness. (MM)

National History Day is an opportunity for friendly competition and esprit d'corps, the topic of which in 1984 is family and community. Results of the 1983 national competition are discussed, with particular emphasis on how New England schools fared. (IS)

A considerable body of research exists on whether students who attend private school with a voucher benefit academically. Whether public schools improve in response to the challenge of voucher programs, however, has been less thoroughly studied. This study provides new evidence on how public schools fare when faced with the challenge of school…

The largest grant program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the National Research Initiative (NRI). The General Accounting Office (GAO) was asked by Congress to examine the success of minority-serving institutions in competing for NRI research grants and to identify factors that could improve their success in competing for these…

This teacher module provides background information and resources to the Annual Duracell/National Science Teachers Association Scholarship Competition Invention Challenge for high school students. Contents include: (1) "Introduction to the Competition"; (2) "Tips for Motivating Students"; (3) "Preparing for Inventing"; (4) "Teaching Invention:…

Israeli kibbutz and city children aged 8-11 years were compared on cooperative-competitive behavior. City children from the U.S. were also included in one of the comparisons. Kibbutz children were more cooperative than either Israeli or U.S. city children. (ST)

Responds to an earlier article by William Darity, Jr., which criticized the author's concept of equal economic opportunity. Claims that Darity misrepresented his viewpoint regarding racial differences in economic status. (GC)

Urges the inclusion of the speech to stimulate--"epideictic oratory"--as a standard contest category in tournaments. (PD)

Research on children's sport participation motives is examined to provide insight about potential sources of stress in organized youth sports. A four-stage model of stress is outlined, and topics that deserve further research are discussed. (CJ)

Examines two types of cultural identity, defensive and transcendent. Discusses acculturation and three current manifestations of American cultural pluralism: religion and schooling, bilingualism, and competition. Establishes multicultural education's role in achieving transcendent identity. (SK)

Academic competitions have the goal of spurring students to excellence through public recognition of their achievements. Some of the better known international, national, and local academic competitions are described. (Author/MLF)

Seventy-one competitive, noncompetitive and nonathletes were compared on Cattell's Sixteen Personality Factor and Rotter's locus of control questionnaires. Athletes appeared more dominant and less imaginative than nonathletes. Noncompetitive athletes were also less self-sufficient than the others, and females were generally more venturesome than…

Healthy competition and longer writing projects helped to overcome some of the difficulties associated with the long residencies of visiting writers in elementary schools. (RL)

Assigned undergraduates to groups defined by combination of factors: opportunity to cheat, type of competition, subject Machiavellianism (Mach). Cheating occurred in opportunity to cheat, impersonal competition, high Mach group and in opportunity to cheat, personal competition, low Mach group. Extends research to situations where subjects cheated…

An aware administrator can help marching bands deemphasize time-comsuming marching contests and sports activities and emphasize true music education. (JM)