Reviews successful attempts to help students who perform below their potential. Argues that effective measures for helping underachieving students include: teachers believing in their students, and making the classroom a place which provides love, belonging, power, fun, and freedom. (RS)

Assesses self-concepts of 2,481 students from kindergarten through twelfth grade. Reveals that eighth-grade students, in particular, seemed to demonstrate self-concepts substantially below their counterparts in other grade levels. (SR)

Surveys the readiness of a sample of special education graduates from Kansas. Finds that mentally retarded graduates encountered more trouble in adjusting to adult life than their learning-disabled or behaviorally disordered counterparts. Finds that males had more work experiences than females. (RS)

Finds that the five-part "Let's Get Excited about Life" audio-visual series enhanced self-esteem in two groups of second grade students. (SR)

Finds that a group of third graders' self-concept scores (collected up to a year following the administration of the "Let's Get Excited about Life" program) continue to be significantly elevated when compared to the pretreatment assessments of these children's self-concepts. (SR)

Compares teachers' attitudes toward handicapped and gifted students, finding gifted children were rated significantly more positively than were their handicapped counterparts regardless of the students' gender and/or familial background. (NH)

Surveys students to ascertain what hierarchies existed among four ethnic groups regarding their support systems, self-concepts, and levels of school adjustment. Finds that European Americans fared well, whereas African Americans fared least well among the groups surveyed. (RS)

Examines the usefulness of distance education at the graduate level. Demonstrates support for the notion that distance education works and that courses taught in remote locales, using control theory techniques, can serve to enhance students' enthusiasm for the subjects taught. (RS)

Examines the impact of the five-week "Let's Get Excited about Life" program on second graders' self-concepts. Finds that students' self-concepts were elevated following treatment according to the students' ratings of themselves and their teachers' ratings of the students. Discusses implications of the findings. (RS)