From time to time during the past 100 years individuals or organizations have suggested, or seriously proposed, the establishment of a Federal department of education. Immediately after the Civil War the early advocates, led by Henry Barnard, almost succeeded in their plan. In 1867 a bill creating a department of education, introduced into the…

The impact of seat position on teachers' initial judgments of students was investigated. Students sitting forward in the classroom were regarded more favorably than those at the rear. Results indicated a significant effect for seating and a three-way interaction between chosen seat, sex, and grade. (Author/GK)

Mathematical problems associated with computing the proper apportionment of Representatives to the United States Congress are reviewed. (MP)

The study compares school absence in children known to have asthma (N=95) with a random sample of nonasthmatic elementary school children (N=711). Children with asthma have a significantly higher absentee rate (absent 8.4 percent of days) than do nonasthmatic children (absent 5.9 percent of days). Journal Availability: American Academy of…

Discusses Anglo-Prussian relations during the Seven Years War, explores various explanations for why the formal treaty between England and Prussia was not renewed in 1762, and suggests additional research on relations between the two nations during the 1760s. Journal availability: see SO 507 179. (Author/DB)

This article describes a class geography project which involves middle school and junior high school students in re-mapping the United States. A bibliography of print and human resources is included. (Author/RM)

Discusses how the Tulare (California) County Office of Education, Educational Resource Services department made the California Academic Content Standards more accessible to teachers by cataloging and classifying the collection of materials that support the standards and creating Web pages according to grade levels. Discusses future plans that…

Describes a study that asked undergraduates to list three personally memorable incidents concerning library use in order to understand the human experience of libraries and implications this understanding has for library use and service, education, and design. Discusses results of content analysis, phenomenological analysis, and grade levels at…

Presents an instructional strategy for teaching how to solve word problems and understand the operations involved. Describes the acquisition method of the part-whole relationships of problem situations. Provides some samples of the instructional strategy used and classroom test results. Lists nine references. (YP)

Investigated was the use of cognitive conflict to probe the misconceptions held by preservice elementary teachers that in a division problem the quotient must be less than the dividend. Explains how preservice teachers' reliance on information about the domain of whole numbers and their instrumental understanding support their misconceptions.…

Analyzed were 19 preservice teachers' understanding of division in 3 contexts. The teachers' knowledge was generally fragmented, and each case of division was held as a separate bit of knowledge. (Author/YP)

Investigated relationship between academic achievement and locus of control among 643 elementary school students. Found no main effects for gender or race. Observed significant main effect for condition (at-risk versus not-at-risk), with at-risk students being more externally oriented. Found significant effect for grade, trend being for grade…

Only 25% of fifth- and sixth-grade Chinese students (n=186) correctly solved a division-with-remainder computation task, about the same success rate as with American students, and only one-sixth of the students could interpret the result. (MKR)

Constructivism, which holds that knowledge is created out of each individual's own experience, is recapturing researchers' attention. To constructivists, teachers are not omniscient oracles, but nutritionists providing an environment for children to grow their own knowledge. Students might learn division by planning a field trip instead of…