As the standards and accountability movements have gained momentum and political favor in recent years, a renewed interest in instructional practices intended to promote greater success on standardized tests has been evidenced. One such instructional practice, homework, while certainly not a recent practice, receives both support and criticism and…

The teaching of statistics at the elementary and secondary level is a relatively new expansion of the curriculum. Considering the many challenges faced by teachers of statistics in higher education, there is a continuing need to evaluate and monitor teaching and learning at this level. The purpose of this study was to survey elementary and…

Studies have shown that stand-alone technology courses, such as those taught in most teacher education programs, only develop basic computer literacy skills and do not prepare educators to use instructional technology in the classroom. A 14-item questionnaire assessed instructional technology use for classroom management and instructional…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 has increased emphasis on "closing the gap" between the achievement of African-American and disadvantaged children and that of their respective peers. Using the 2001 results of Kentucky's accountability tests (e.g., CTBS-5, KCCT), Chi-square analyses were performed to determine whether, when disaggregated by…

The most powerful position in public schools is that of school superintendent, and it is a position dominated by men. Several factors account for the decline of women in superintendency. Perhaps the most important reason there are so few women in the superintendency is that women enter the teaching profession to teach children. Based on the…

The practices of 191 regular-classroom teachers teaching language-minority children were studied. Findings suggest that teachers typically have not received formal training in second-language learning, that their resources are inadequate, and that they often engage in well-meaning practices that are detrimental to the development of…

Attitudes of 100 graduate students in general and special education about full inclusion in education were studied through a questionnaire created for the investigation. Results indicate that perceptions about full inclusion are significantly affected by race, major, instructional setting, and full-inclusive independent study. (SLD)

Perceptions of school superintendents and school board members regarding their respective roles in school governance were studied with 175 superintendents and 226 school board members. Significant differences were found in role perceptions of superintendents and school board members; both groups believed they should have more authority relative to…

Research conducted over the past 25 years on the relationship between the funding of education and student achievement is analyzed and synthesized. Once a base level of funding has been provided, judicious spending should be evidenced in improved student achievement, up to an optimum point. Implications for educational spending are discussed. (SLD)

The study of four community-based organizations (CBOs) participating in the Attendance Improvement Dropout Prevention program in New York City illustrates that it is important to distinguish among the characteristics of CBOs when schools think about forming collaboratives with them. CBOs may serve very different purposes for school needs. (SLD)

A sample of 333 8th, 10th, and 12th graders completed a questionnaire measuring their academic motivational orientations through items investigating perceptions of causal attributions and actual causal attributions. Results show a number of gender differences, with girls more likely to attribute failure to lack of ability and lack of effort. (SLD)

A model projecting school enrollment by using births lagged an appropriate number of years and a model using lagged births and the previous year's enrollment were applied to two school grade levels and state and county levels in Kentucky. The model using lagged births and earlier figures provided better predictions. (SLD)

Literature on the use of true-false examination questions is reviewed, and it is concluded that such questions can be written to measure the range of cognitive outcomes efficiently. However, except among professional test developers, this does not usually happen. Research does not clarify whether the answer lies in better teacher training or in…

A poll of 1,933 voters in two counties that passed school bonds and two that did not examines voter perceptions toward school bonds. The factors linked to passage were that the number of students was growing, that most students would benefit, and that the dollar amount of the bond issue was reasonable. (SLD)

Over 100 systems have been developed that permit the recording and categorizing of teacher and student behavior. The cognitive processes of practicing teachers' decision making must be studied in order to deduce a common base whereby teaching decisions could be improved. (Author/JKS)