The computer-supported Project Work classroom learning environment discussed in this paper represents a paradigm shift from teacher-centered to student-centered teaching and learning in Singapore schools. Besides the face-to-face weekly lessons in existing Project Work classrooms, the students engaged in computer-supported online forum discussions. Two hundred and sixty students and 26 teachers from seven high schools participated in this study. Their perceptions of this new learning...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Educational Environment, Student Attitudes, Test Validity, Item...
The racial, ethnic, linguistic, and economic diversity within urban areas necessitates the creation of scholastic environments that are responsive to the varying academic and social needs of the student population. This qualitative study investigates ways in which teacher and administrator behavior and the school environment contribute to the successes or frustrations of minority students in AP and IB courses. Classroom observations and interviews with 9 administrators, 4 counselors, 43...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Advanced Placement Programs, Educational Environment, Teacher Behavior, Administrator...
In this article, the authors explore the effects of Virginia's high stakes history tests on beginning teachers' "notions of historical thinking," and briefly consider the literature on historical thinking, high-stakes testing, and beginning teachers. Data sources for this study included interviews, observations, and classroom documents of seven beginning high school history teachers who work in the high-stakes testing environment of Virginia. The interviews and observations revealed...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Testing, High Stakes Tests, Critical Thinking, Beginning Teachers, History...
This study compared the perspectives of foreign and Japanese instructors regarding the impact of the former on lesson content and student learning. Participants consisted of 208 Assistant Language Teachers (ALT) and 96 Japanese Language Teachers (JLT) working together through the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program. Path models constructed to illustrate causal relationships among eleven selected variables revealed three findings: (a) Both groups observe a close interdependency between ALT...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, High Schools, Path Analysis, Japanese, Language Teachers, Teacher...
This study investigated the relationship between professionally and personally inviting behaviors of high school principals in the state of Mississippi and: (a) Teacher Job Satisfaction, (b) Principal Effectiveness, (c) Principal as an Agent of School Improvement, and (d) Principal's Invitational Quotient, and (e) The Computed Accreditation Performance Index of their respective school district. The foundation for this study evolved as an extension of earlier research (Asbill, 1994) that...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Change, Job Satisfaction, Principals, Administrator Effectiveness, School...
This study investigated the interaction between students' academic background (high school grades, standardized exams, and enrollment in advanced high school courses) and how much autonomy they reported having in high school science through labs and projects. The objective was to see if students who reported experiencing more or less self-directed projects and labs performed differently in college science when prior academic background was taken into account. To provide a more solid foundation...
Topics: ERIC Archive, College Science, Grades (Scholastic), High Schools, Standardized Tests, Scores,...
With the dramatic growth of environmental science as an elective in high schools over the last decade, educators have the opportunity to realistically consider the possibility of incorporating environmental science into the core high school curriculum. Environmental science has several characteristics that make it a candidate for the core curriculum. It is: (1) important for students and society; (2) an opportunity for students to experience an applied science; and (3) a particularly engaging...
Topics: ERIC Archive, High Schools, Technology, Secondary School Curriculum, Core Curriculum, Environmental...
Using a national survey of more than 7,000 students from 128 different college introductory science courses, the authors compared students who experienced Block scheduling and Traditional scheduling in high school. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)
Topics: ERIC Archive, Scheduling, Block Scheduling, Science Instruction, Introductory Courses, High...
In 2003, a study of two Canadian adult literacy programs included 37 learners who revealed a variety of reasons for having dropped out of school as teenagers and younger adults. Chief among these were the influences of parents, siblings, and peers both in and out of school. This article considers these research findings, in light of the educational literature, as a catalyst for recommending ways that high school administrators, counselors, and teachers can (1) make students' families and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Siblings, Adolescents, Adult Literacy, Parent Influence, Dropouts, Foreign Countries,...
This article describes how students learn invaluable job-readiness and academic skills by setting up and running their own businesses in a virtual world. Virtual Enterprises (VE) International is a high school career and technical education (CTE) program that teaches students about business by having a class create and operate its own virtual firm. In the VE network, there are many different types of firms--including law offices, insurance companies, specialty bicycle shops, and even a hotel in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, High Schools, Educational Technology, Vocational Education, Active Learning, Student...
This article is about how the West Boca Raton Community High School's Culinary Arts Academy achieved national model status as it works to prepare the next generation of culinary artists. The culinary academy, established in 2004, adopted national standards that have served as a foundation for its excellence. In November 2007, the National Career Academy Coalition (NCAC) recognized the academy for its achievements with the National Standards of Practice "Award of Distinction." Drawn...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Career Academies, Cooking Instruction, High Schools, National Standards, Program...
How should district and school leaders improve education for students traditionally underserved by public education: by increasing control over teaching and curriculum, or by empowering groups of teachers to have more collective autonomy, responsibility, and opportunities for professional learning? The second approach--promoting multiple trajectories of learning among groups of teachers--has advantages, as well as some challenges, as a means of closing various achievement gaps. Sociocultural...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Academic Achievement, Teacher Collaboration, Educational Change, English (Second...
Schools employ educational technology to comply with pressures for greater accountability and efficiency in conducting operations. Specifically, schools use "management information systems" designed to automate data collection of student attendance, grades, test scores, and so on. These management information systems (MIS) employed widespread use of technology to enable effective and efficient school operations in order to promote school accountability. In this case study, the authors...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Attendance, Management Information Systems, Educational Technology, Accountability,...
Massachusetts, home to some of the most prestigious institutions of higher education, has also been a leader for decades in the delivery of career and technical education (CTE). Across the state of 351 cities and towns, there are 26 regional CTE school districts and dozens more technical wings in comprehensive high schools. CTE institutions such as Blue Hills Regional Technical School, located in Canton, take students from grades nine through 12 and attract students from the towns in their...
Topics: ERIC Archive, High Schools, Interdisciplinary Approach, Tech Prep, Vocational Education,...
This study examined pre-college variables from an admission-office perspective and the ability of these variables to predict college grade point average (GPA) for students specially admitted into an academic support program for at-risk students. The research was conducted at a private, highly-selective, research university in the southwest United States. The primary determining factors for this special admission program are lower-than-average high school GPA and/or standardized test scores....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Research Universities, Grade Point Average, Standardized Tests, Academic Achievement,...
Over the last several years there have been numerous calls for reforming high school to college transitions. In 2000-2001, the American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) and the National Commission on the High School Senior Year respectively called for a re-thinking of how students moved from secondary to postsecondary education. A widely-discussed initiative was dual or concurrent enrollment, or as referred to by the AYPF during its 200 roundtable discussion, "secondary postsecondary learning...
Topics: ERIC Archive, High Schools, College Credits, Grade 10, Youth, Dual Enrollment, High School Seniors,...
The increased emphasis on standards-based school accountability since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is focusing critical attention on the professional development of school principals and their ability to meet the challenges of improving student outcomes. While rural school districts are dealing with many of the same issues facing urban districts, there are unique challenges that rural school principals face. However, effective professional development that addresses the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Rural Schools, School Restructuring, Federal Legislation, Educational Change,...
The purpose of this study was to explore the reasons 162 rural area high school students participate in the dual enrollment program. Dual enrollment programs allow high school students to enroll in college courses for credit prior to high school graduation with local school districts covering the cost of tuition. Participants in this study were recruited from two rural agricultural counties from Washington State attending a local college. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that dual...
Topics: ERIC Archive, High Schools, Student Participation, Factor Analysis, Rural Areas, Counties, Grade...
This study examines the meaning of teaching in rural, historically monocultural communities as it is experienced by teachers of color. This research project developed in three phases: (1) identifying; (2) observing teaching practices of; and (3) conducting a weekend focus group with a sampling of teachers of color working in middle and secondary education in the rural state of Wyoming. The data sought from these participants emanated from the following overarching question: How do teachers of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Multicultural Education, Focus Groups, Diversity (Faculty), Teaching Methods, Rural...
Part of a larger research project involving the study of mathematics achievement of middle and high school students in Tennessee, this report analyzes said achievement in terms of school locale and the percentage of disadvantaged (pdisadv) students enrolled in the school. Schools were designated as Rural, Large Central City, and Other Nonrural. Socioeconomic Status (SES) was determined by the percentage of students receiving federally subsidized free and reduced lunch. Schools were then placed...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Economically Disadvantaged, Mathematics Achievement, Rural Education, Poverty, Rural...
This case study details the events surrounding a gay student's "coming out" in a small, rural high school. Through the eyes and experiences of the student, his teachers, classmates, and community, we hear the story of how the school and community dealt with an issue they had never before actively considered. Through qualitative interviews, the former high school principal describes reactions and lessons learned as the student made his sexual orientation known, attended prom, and was...
Topics: ERIC Archive, High Schools, Sexual Orientation, Homosexuality, Principals, Case Studies, Rural...
This article describes a successful alternative school located in northwest Wyoming. Students who attend this school need an atmosphere that is accepting of their differences and allows them to express themselves without fear of ridicule or punishment. These children are looking for a safe, secure place to complete their education, a place where their unique differences are respected. Bear Lodge is one such alternative high school. Students at Bear Lodge share their perspective and provide a...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Nontraditional Education, Dropouts, High Schools, Program Effectiveness, Dropout...
Tech Prep is a high school program of study. The student outcome objective is to prepare students to make the transition from high school to postsecondary pre-baccalaureate technical education, complete the postsecondary program without the need to take remedial academic courses, and then transition to commensurate employment. While the concept is not necessarily new--2+2 programs were around in the 1950s--the present day Tech Prep model can be traced to the writings of Dale Parnell (1985), who...
Topics: ERIC Archive, High Schools, Grade 10, Tech Prep, Vocational Education, Academic Persistence,...
There has been abundant research examining how early life experiences affect achievement. In this article, we investigate the transition from elementary to junior high school at a developmental stage where numerous changes have an impact on students. Using nationally representative survey data, we found no differences in academic achievement between students who transitioned to grade seven from an elementary school in comparison to those who remained in the same school. We did find a...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mathematics Achievement, Academic Achievement, Developmental Stages, Comparative...
This article presents a short story of the authors, who show how they have "entered research", that is, entered the earliest conception of research and the early formation of research collaboration. As the authors worked together, they realised they had common concerns and life experiences. Each proudly identifies as working class Australian, each is involved with studying at a university, each has a mobility disability, and each values strong family and community connections. They...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Working Class, Written Language, Cooperation, Educational Research, High Schools,...
Educators in senior high schools are used to hearing, "Senior high schools today look the same as they did a hundred years ago." Though the author has heard this and similar comments, she also has heard a great number of high school students talking with excitement about their learning experiences. She has worked with teachers and administrators who are passionately committed to ensuring that secondary-level students receive a high-quality education, and she has reveled in hearing...
Topics: ERIC Archive, High Schools, Educational Quality, Educational Change, Improvement Programs, School...
High school students engaging in career decision making encounter significant challenges due to changing social and economic conditions. The student needs assessment focus of this study provides unique insights into student perceptions of the effectiveness of high school career programs. Results indicated that Grade 12 students value resources that support transitions, have a passion for career, and report a wide range of occupational choices. However, students may not perceive career...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Student Needs, High Schools, Needs Assessment, Program Effectiveness, Public Policy,...
The author of this article describes the broad consideration of educational standards that occurred with a cohort of 30 masters' licensure students in public, urban university and high school contexts. This deliberation over standards was rooted in the model of standards development presented by these future teachers' licensure program and called upon this next generation of urban educators to develop standards for their own teaching practices. Relying upon a set of urban standards, this...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Universities, Beginning Teachers, Teaching Methods, Educational Change,...
Effective substance abuse prevention programs help students develop knowledge as well as psychosocial competencies that can help them resist or delay the initiation of alcohol, tobacco and other drug (ATOD) use. This paper describes the integration process used in a five-year project, Adoption of Drug Abuse Prevention Training (ADAPT), to study the effectiveness of two methods of drug prevention programming, based on Botvin's Life Skills Training (LST) program. Botvin's standard LST program was...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Junior High Schools, Prevention, Drinking, Interdisciplinary Approach, Drug Abuse,...
Richard Murnane observes that the American ideal of equality of educational opportunity has for years been more the rhetoric than the reality of the nation's political life. Children living in poverty, he notes, tend to be concentrated in low-performing schools staffed by ill-equipped teachers. They are likely to leave school without the skills needed to earn a decent living in a rapidly changing economy. Murnane describes three initiatives that the federal government could take to improve the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Poverty, Graduation Rate, Federal Legislation, School Choice, Program Effectiveness,...
Schools have the potential to foster healthy behaviors among youths through sound health and physical education programs. Teacher candidates who are being certified through teacher preparation programs should take a course on basic wellness and exercise principles, in order to prepare themselves to teach those principles to all school faculty members. This way, everyone will be able to make a contribution toward and participate in the battle against obesity. This article describes how studying...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Program Design, Physical Education, Obesity, Teacher Education Programs, Wellness,...
This article addresses the many ways in which schools can provide physical activity opportunities for students by taking advantage of hours that students might otherwise spend waiting for school to begin or playing computer games after school has ended. The article presents creative strategies for engaging students in activities that are inexpensive--such as activity prompts, intramurals, and facility sharing--as well as ideas that require more effort and community collaboration, such as the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, School Buses, Physical Activities, Games, Physical Activity Level, Educational...
These are challenging times for teachers. Mixed messages, conflicting demands, and increasing needs on all fronts surround them. Each day, teachers face increasing requirements and significant pressures on their daily practice from administrators and policymakers. It is hard to be, or remain, a teacher of quality committed to one's ideals. In this article, based upon data from interviews and observations drawn from a larger study, the author explores the experiences of one teacher as she...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Nontraditional Education, Standardized Tests, Science Teachers, Accountability, High...
This article documents implementation and critically reflects upon the results of a partnership between a predominately white rural college and a multicultural urban school district. The partnership was intended both to recruit high school students of color from an urban school to teacher education and to encourage teacher candidates from a rural college to seek employment in urban areas. Establishing a school-university partnership is a challenging task, and the literature suggests that few...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, College School Cooperation, Rural Areas, Minority Groups, Models,...
The task of successfully preparing teachers in the United State to effectively work with an ever-increasing culturally and linguistically diverse student body represents a pressing challenge for teacher educators. Unfortunately, much of this practice of equipping prospective teachers for working with learners from different backgrounds revolves around exposing these future educators to what are perceived as the best practical strategies to ensure the academic and linguistic development of their...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Preservice Teacher Education, Critical Theory, Elementary Secondary Education,...
This article addresses the democratic rhetoric taught in a Costa Rican High School and the ways in which that rhetoric clashed with school practices that revealed hierarchies based on race, ethnicity, class, and religion. This contradiction was rendered visible through student elections, the Independence Day celebration, and civic acts. Through these acts, it became apparent that white, wealthy, Catholic students were upheld as most closely matching the image of ideal citizenship projected by...
Topics: ERIC Archive, High Schools, Social Influences, Social Class, Religious Factors, Civics, Racial...
While the literature on parent involvement cites many examples of challenges to parent involvement and suggestions to overcome them, few models of extensive parent involvement in urban, public high schools have been described. The Boston Arts Academy is an example of a school in such a setting. It engages a vast majority of its parents in school-based activities through multiple entry points, a welcoming school environment, and frequent communication among staff and parents. By focusing on...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Parent Participation, Parent School Relationship, Educational Environment, Case...
To the now-expansive literature on the causes and consequences of segregation in schooling and of inequality in educational opportunity in the United States, the author would like to add a call for more attention to the politics of school districting--that is, to how and why districts are created, in the service of whose interests, and with what consequences for students. Towards that end, this article reconstructs the solidification of a school district in upstate New York, the Spackenkill...
Topics: ERIC Archive, School Districts, Politics of Education, Case Studies, Educational History, School...
A national survey of high school principals was conducted to determine whether they agreed or disagreed with selected practices and procedures used to hire high school physical education teachers. A survey instrument, developed with the help of experts in the field and consisting of 29 items, was sent to 400 randomly selected principals. Useable survey instruments returned numbered 214 for a 53.5 percent rate of return. The results revealed the schools' hiring practices, policies, and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Physical Education, Public Schools, Personnel Selection, Surveys, High Schools,...
Adolescents typically become less physically active as they progress through high school. This inactivity has led to some adolescents become unhealthy, overweight, and unmotivated to participate in physical activity. The purpose of this article is to present two interventions aimed at motivating physical education students to be more physically active. These interventions provide adolescents with information about how to maintain physical activity and find it more meaningful. (Contains 2...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Physical Education, Physical Activities, Adolescents, High Schools, Intervention,...
Little is known about dismissals in the high school coaching arena. Some research indicates that school boards and administrators dismiss an average of one in ten coaches annually. As educators who prepare future coaches and teachers, we strive to properly equip individuals pursuing this vocation by providing educational experiences that enhance coaching longevity and job security. Since sports play such a prominent role in our culture, investigation into this area would appear warranted....
Topics: ERIC Archive, High Schools, Job Security, Educational Experience, Principals, Athletic Coaches,...
These authors state that, while New England schools serve the children of the affluent very well, many children from low-income backgrounds are left behind at key points in the "non-system" that is perpetuated from preschool through college and beyond. They suggest that all segments of New England education should work more closely together so that more children, especially urban and rural students, could complete college degrees. Nationally, the State Higher Education Executive...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Elementary Secondary Education, Low Income Groups, Philanthropic...
This article presents the New England Journal of Higher Education (NEJHE) Trends & Indicators in Higher Education, featuring 64 tables and charts exploring New England's demography, high school performance and graduation, college enrollment, college graduation rates and degree production, higher education financing, and university research. The figures presented in this report are organized to correspond with the four goals of the New England Board of Higher Education's (NEBHE's)...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Management Systems, School Readiness, Graduation Rate, Demography,...
New modes of everyday communication--textual, visual, audio and video--are already part of almost every high school and college student's social life. Can such social networking principles be effective in an educational setting? In this article, the author describes how the students at his school, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), are provided with opportunities to share their work through a new generation of Web 2.0 solutions that are easier to use, more engaging, and have an increasing...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Social Life, Educational Technology, Social Networks, High Schools, Higher Education,...
There is a growing gap between Maine high school graduates' "college intentions" and their actual college enrollment, according to a recent study by the Senator George J. Mitchell Scholarship Research Institute. A follow-up to a similar study the institute conducted five years ago, the new research is based on enrollment data from colleges and Maine public high schools, surveys of more than 3,000 Maine parents, students, young adults and educators and group interviews in 19 high...
Topics: ERIC Archive, High Schools, High School Graduates, Young Adults, Enrollment, College Bound...
A study published in the "Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering" found that girls are completing high school science and math courses at the same rate as boys: 94 percent of girls took biology (compared with 91 percent of boys), 64 percent took chemistry (57 percent for boys) and 26 percent studied physics (32 percent of boys). Yet despite similar rates of participation and achievement in high school science and math courses, young women continue to lag behind...
Topics: ERIC Archive, High Schools, Females, Engineering, Males, Gender Differences, Technical Occupations,...
Between 1994 and 2003, employment in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields grew by a remarkable 23 percent, compared with 17 percent in non-STEM fields, according to federal data. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts continued strong growth in STEM job openings through 2014, with emphasis on life sciences, environmental sciences and engineering. The median salary of STEM workers is 66 percent higher than that of non-STEM workers, according to the National Association of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, College Science, Role Models, Elementary Secondary Education, College Graduates,...
The Providence-based Big Picture Company has transformed the American high school experience for low-income, urban students. Now it is ready to take on a new challenge: redesigning the American college. In this article, the authors discuss how the Big Picture College will build a curriculum that emphasizes students' interests, integrates coursework with internships and groups students in teams that work together on real-life, collaborative projects.
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, High Schools, Graduates, African American Students, Low Income Groups,...
Mathematics is a very important subject in Nigeria. Yet, for more than twenty years, mathematics education in Nigeria has been in a sorry state. Mathematics achievement has been very low and frustrating. So far, every effort made to save Nigerian education from the devastating effect of persistent poor mathematics achievement has failed. An experiment to address the problem of poor achievement in mathematics in Nigerian high schools was carried out in Edo State of Nigeria. Eighteen simple...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Experimental Groups, Control Groups, Mathematics Instruction, Mathematics...
Asthma education interventions primarily target young children and adults, and a few target adolescents. Several constructs of the social cognitive theory were used to design a classroom-based high school asthma education curriculum and to determine if the curriculum would improve asthma knowledge and attitudes among 10th grade students, as well as improve the quality of life, self-efficacy, and self-management behaviors among asthmatic students. Using a nonequivalent control group design with...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Control Groups, Intervention, Self Efficacy, Quality of Life, Diseases, Adolescents,...