Stephen Jay Gould points out in "The Mismeasure of Man" (1981), "Science, since people must do it, is a socially embedded activity. It progresses by hunch, vision, and intuition." The legacy of the traditional construct of intelligence and its measurement through intelligence quotient (IQ) tests has not been educational improvement. Its legacy in…

This theme issue of a newsletter for academically talented youth focuses on getting the best precollege education. It encourages students to take responsibility for their own learning by becoming aware of all the options their school offers; making use of them; supplementing and enriching the basic school curriculum; and participating in…

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) enforces federal civil rights laws prohibiting discrimination in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance from the Department of Education. Laws enforced by OCR include: (1) Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin;…

Alternatives to the current system of graded classes and ability grouping are examined that would allow teachers to balance individual student needs with practical considerations in instructional delivery. In addition to reviewing the alternatives, the research that has examined these approaches is reviewed and synthesized. The three alternative…

The hidden curriculum is that set of intentional outcomes from schooling not formally recognized or written. Although not perceived by educators as a measurable construct, the hidden curriculum has been a significant underlying caretaker of culture. Changes in the hidden curriculum can occur more quickly than changes in the formal curriculum,…

The effects of "bona fide" homogeneous grouping of students in grades 4 through 8 in a southeastern school system on the students' subsequent academic achievement were studied. These effects were studied for black students as well as for all students regardless of race, across 2 years. The student population was composed of over 4,800…

On the premise that it is important to examine parental attitudes as children enter the middle grades since it is at this point that decision shaping students' subsequent course taking patterns are made, this study examined the degree to which parents were involved in the assignment of their children to mathematics courses in the seventh grade.…

Recent studies of the self-concept of academic ability, described by W. B. Brookover in 1959, are reviewed. The self-concept of academic ability is defined as the individual's assessment of his or her ability to learn in the school context in comparison to relevant others in the school. A scale--the Self-Concept of Academic Ability Scale--was…

This second volume of a three-volume report presents research conducted in the former New Castle County (Delaware) School District to discover whether the overrepresentation of minority students in special education and lower academic groupings that occurred from 1979 to 1982 resulted from discriminatory practices or not. (The district was…

Peer influence on students has been of interest to sociologists for some time. But most studies of elementary classroom interaction have focused primarily on teacher-student interaction. A study of peer influence on other group members was designed to explain why students assigned to low ability groups became inattentive more frequently than…

This monograph presents a discussion of the problems involved in implementing sex-fair coeducational classes in physical education. Suggestions, which grew out of a symposium on coeducational physical education, are offered on procedures that may be used for ability grouping, such as what type of test(s) are appropriate and when to use single or…

This paper reviews significant research findings from the past 10 years which demonstrate that teachers' attitudes, expectations, and behavior have significant practical effects on student achievement. Although causes of differential interaction are not definitely established, it is clear that many teachers vary sharply in their interaction…

Guidelines are presented to aid secondary school physical education teachers in evaluating student performance in a way that avoids sex-role stereotyping and sex discrimination. Suggestions made for conducting testing in a bias-free setting include: (1) avoid sex-differentiated role tasks; (2) organize motor-performance testing procedures so that…

Qualitative methods were used to analyze the social environments--or webs of interaction--in reading groups of varying ability levels. Ethnographic observations were conducted for 15 to 30 hours in each of eight first and second grade classrooms with ability-divided reading groups. A code scheme was developed to categorize the quantity and quality…

Placement in a non-college curriculum track may cause losses in self-esteem and increased delinquency. A nationally representative, longitudinal sample of over 1600 high school boys was examined by means of a status attainment perspective to conceptualize tracking influences on delinquency, and by path models to explore assumptions about the…