Ontario's Transition Years initiatives, designed to change schooling structures and processes and ease early adolescents' transition to high school, seem to place teachers in equally trying and traumatic transitions in their work and careers. Program components challenge teachers' sense of competence and effectiveness and threaten to consume…

Within the Caribbean context, the island of Montserrat included, ability grouping has been employed as the major organizational strategy to address academic deficiencies among high school students. Although no sound philosophical basis for this type of class/group organization has been enunciated, recent research has shown that students with poor…

Contains statistics on fluctuation between the different course levels in the segregated ability group phases during the first two years of instruction. Reports also on results of a questionnaire for students, parents and teachers aiming to evaluate the grouping procedure. Recommendations on ability grouping are also given. (Text is in German.)…

Data from 12 2-hour observations of 41 elementary school classroom teachers were used to investigate classroom management problems associated with the use of small group instruction. Student engagement during small group instruction was compared with that in whole class instruction, seatwork, and transitions. Classroom narratives of subsamples of…

The association between Lewis M. Terman and the World Book Company is traced in order to gain insight about the role of test publishing in the testing movement. The test publisher assumes the position of an intermediary between the test developer and the educational administrator responsible for making decisions about test adoption. Terman began…

This classroom observation unit includes a set of activities that are sequenced to create a one-semester field study course. The activities are organized into the following five modules: (1) observing teachers' classroom management strategies; (2) observing teachers' questioning strategies; (3) observing classroom activities routines; (4)…

Grouping for instruction has characteristics that make existing structures, habits, and attitudes resistant to change. This case study accordingly describes a school district located 40 miles south of Chicago in which attempts were made to change attitudes about, and the practice of, instructional grouping over a 3-year period. Two ways are…

This brief digest reviews research findings on achieving racial integration in desegregated magnet schools. Studies show that resegregation tends to occur in most schools after desegregation as a result of tracking and ability grouping; furthermore, as the numbers of blacks rise in a school, the resegregation in classrooms tends to rise. A number…

Ability grouping is a contentious issue in high school science education, and one that divides teachers, parents, and policymakers alike. However, it may be that current grouping systems are founded on ideas that are failing to provide for the best interests of students at any ability level. This article aims to review current practice and its…

This paper examines the research on "pull out," a method or type of school organization for remedial teaching of Title I eligible pupils. Four major issues addressed are: (1) the educational benefits of pulling students out of the daily routine to provide them with compensatory education services; (2) the impact of such action on…

A study was conducted to determine what conditions connected with college students' entering status were associated with significantly increased error reduction during the first semester of freshman composition and what factors connected with preparation made it possible to classify students who proved to be successful--or unsuccessful--in that…

A DISCUSSION WAS PRESENTED ON THE PROCEDURES OF EQUATING DIVERSE ABILITY SCORES OBTAINED BY DIFFERENT SCALED MEASURES. THE AUTHOR INDICATED THE NECESSITY OF EQUATING SUCH SCORES WHEN ABILITY IS TO BE TREATED AS A SINGLE INDEPENDENT VARIABLE IN SIGNIFICANCE TESTS AND IN COMPARATIVE ANALYSES OF DICHOTOMIZED GROUPS. A NEW RATIONALE FOR EQUATING…

In order to determine if homogeneous grouping in basic expository writing classes makes teaching more effective, 2,212 incoming college freshmen were given a two-hour essay placement examination and divided into four groups according to the kinds of writing problems they had. They then enrolled in sections designated by placement group, except for…

To test the hypothesis that the social nature of the pupil team-learning situation differs in a number of respects from nongraded and conventionally graded classroom situations, sociometric response data were analyzed from 581 students, comprising 20 classrooms in grades 7 through 12 in four western New York rural schools. The sociometric device…

A study was conducted to determine the relationship between motor and verbal ability traits, instructional treatments, and test instruments. Two programed instruments were developed to teach art concepts to sixth grade students. One instrument, termed manipulative, used a programed text with objects and artifacts that the students handled during…