Asserts that research on parents of children with special needs often reveals their lack of power and difficulty in establishing partnerships with professionals. Reports on a study of parents of 114 special needs students. Finds that parents of mild/moderate learning difficulties do not have powerful advocacy groups to promote their cause. (CFR)

Maintains that the Jewish Holocaust is now part of the history curriculum for 11- to 14-year-old students in England and Wales. Argues that teachers need to know how children in this age group perceive culture and identity. Reports on a study of 72 students and discusses the policy implications of the findings. (CFR)

Reports on an exploratory study of a metacognitive approach to teaching low achieving secondary students. Asserts that the research team hoped to examine a process whereby a dialog about learning processes would develop. Finds that all students indicated that they were able to focus on learning as a topic of conversation. (CFR)

Reviews the methodology for analyzing groupwork with computers in mathematics instruction. Describes how the data were analyzed and the phases through which the analysis progressed. Presents generalizations on the role of groupwork with computers in mathematics education. (CFR)

Research documents that attributions of failure resulting from lack of ability result in less punishment from others than do ascriptions to lack of effort. This paper provides a conceptual analysis of these empirical findings, guided by a taxonomy of causal thinking. Process and functional understandings of achievement strivings are distinguished.…

Diagnostic assessment combining cognitive science and psychometrics, cognitively diagnostic assessment (CDA), is characterized in terms of the intended use of the assessment and methods of developing and evaluating assessments. Societal trends motivating the development of CDA and efforts to develop a five-step methodology for CDA are outlined.…

Several different methods for projecting grade-progression ratios were tested with 12 years of grade-specific membership data for Virginia. In nearly all cases, projections made by exponential smoothing produced more accurate results than series produced by averages, moving averages, or regression methods. (SLD)

Responses of 416 teachers to a survey about part-time work reveals particular patterns of demographics, reactions, and perceptions that distinguish teachers who moonlight from those who do not. These differences and their effects on the desire to continue teaching are discussed. (SLD)

Findings are presented from a two-year examination of educational tracking decisions at three comprehensive urban high schools. It is suggested that high school tracking decisions result from the synergy of differentiated, hierarchical curriculum structure; school cultures committed alternately to common schooling and accommodating differences;…

Describes the 54-month National Science Foundation-supported collaboration, the Thinking Mathematics Project. The project involved the American Federation of Teachers and the Learning Research and Development Center of the University of Pittsburgh in an effort to codify research and knowledge on early-grade mathematics instruction. (SLD)

The cognitive and metacognitive knowledge of a proficient bilingual sixth-grade reader who was Latina was studied by comparing her reading processes with those of a marginally proficient bilingual reader and a proficient monolingual reader. Four key dimensions are identified that distinguish the proficient bilingual reader's performance. (SLD)

Two interventions derived from expectation states theory that were intended to counteract stratification in classrooms through academically heterogeneous small groups were tested in 13 elementary school classrooms. Supported the hypotheses that use of status treatments would be associated with higher rates of participation of low-status students.…

Examines perceived obstacles encountered by collaborating teachers, administrators, and researchers in raising expectations for ninth graders at risk for failure in an inner-city high school. Findings illustrate that preventive action must move beyond the teacher-student dyad to include the context of expectations for students, teachers, and…

Predictive relations between mathematics and verbal achievement and several different measures of motivation were examined in samples of 348 sixth-grade and 325 ninth-grade Norwegian students. Results support the internal/external frame of reference model suggesting that academic self-concepts are influenced by both external and internal…

Observational studies of student learning from classroom experience in science and social studies in elementary and middle school classrooms were carried out with 14 students. A model is described that explains how students use multilayered episodic and semantic memory for learning experience and related knowledge to answer achievement test items.…