A summary of desirable and undesirable components of delinquency prevention programs, this paper is intended to help planners, grantmakers, program operators, and others in the development of such programs. Following an introduction, Chapter 2 presents a critical review of contemporary explanations of causes of delinquency and means used to…

Freshmen at a large suburban high school were given a questionnaire about their attitudes toward tracking or ability grouping. From the 867 students, 50 were randomly selected from each of four levels in the tracking system: honor algebra, regular algebra, fundamentals of algebra, and general mathematics. The majority of students at each level…

Seven separate reports survey the literature and current thinking in the following topic areas: optimum school and class sizes, organization of schools into appropriate grade-level groups, the benefits and disadvantages of ability grouping, the decline in student achievement as measured by standardized tests, the expansion of kindergarten…

In a longitudinal field experiment, 42 groups were assembled on the factors of individual ability and attitude similarity resulting in a 2 x 2 crossed ANOVA design. These groups then worked on six projects which spanned a three-month time period. For each project, measures of group performance and group cohesion were taken. Analyses showed that…

A new kind of reading-language processing system, which has been in use at the Patterson Road School (Orcutt, California) since December 1972, is described in this document. The program consists of two ungraded reading chains of twelve groups each (determined by reading comprehension) which meet for 45 minutes daily, read material above the…

This study attempts to determine whether or not ability grouping is desirable for effective instruction. Parents volunteered their children for assignment to a heterogeneous social studies class. Students were divided into a Volunteer Group, a Non-volunteer Group and a Non-response Group. Students for the heterogeneous classes were randomly…

The major objective of the Study of Curriculums for Occupational Preparation and Education (SCOPE) is to coordinate and contribute to national curriculum development at the secondary school level. SCOPE programs attempt to increase the relevance of high school education for the majority of students who must seek employment or further job training…

The desegregation process has pinpointed areas of curriculum reform that are needed to help establish quality integrated educational experiences. A racial and ethnic mix is only a beginning. Institutional procedures have become established in schools which may prohibit the realization of the goal of integrated education. School systems should…

One hundred fifty-nine seventh grade mathematics students were divided into four treatment groups: 1) traditional, tested after each unit, 2) individualized, tested after each unit, 3) individualized, tested after each objective, and 4) individualized, chose to be tested after each objective. Each group was divided into high and low math ability…

The purposes of this study were to: (1) produce self-control of academic behavior in a ninth-grade typing and an eleventh grade accounting class by providing continuous self-generated feedback through various devices; (2) to assess the relative merits of each device; and (3) to study those factors accounting for behavior change under…

The school, often inadvertently and unconsciously, subordinates ethnic and racial minorities. School mechanisms have developed which tend to support ethnic isolation, perpetuate stereotyping and other myths, and in manifold ways differentially treat minorities. School segregation, ability grouping, student fees, and curricular or extracurricular…

In this study, several examples of the relationship between environmental structure and the functional characteristics of objects interacting in an elementary educational environment are presented. These examples are interpreted within a frame of reference derived from a synthesis of concepts and principles from behavioral science and general…

Some issues raised by J. K. Arrow in "Higher Education as a Filter" are discussed and clarified. The central question is Does higher education, to the extent that it acts as a filter, create new information about the abilities of students, or does it utilize known information to sort students according to their abilities? The creation of…

Discusses a new approach for the effective use of mixed ability teaching. (Editor/RK)

Using data from the 1980 High School and Beyond Survey, this study survey estimates the effects of curriculum tracking over a two-year period for students who experienced only one track placement. Contrary to general thinking, the data show that different socioeconomic origins substantially affect ultimate track destination. Suggests the status…