Identifies strategies for attracting orchestra students to the string teaching profession by analyzing 153 returned surveys from 17 universities. Finds respondents suggest that school orchestra directors should become role models by demonstrating their love of music, making learning enjoyable, providing students with teaching opportunities,…

Used computer-mediated communication (CMC) to support postgraduate students in distance-education contexts, examining how CMC could reduce transactional distance and noting the construction of learning communities within an online environment and the socioacademic nature of such communities. Results indicate that CMC can support the construction…

Describes how local, within-school factors at two rural elementary schools located in different parts of Kentucky influenced efforts to achieve the mandated goals of the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 (KERA). Discusses the tension created by imposing generic reform measures on very different rural places. An appendix presents KERA goals.…

Haas criticizes Kannapel et al for conducting their "rural" research with school professionals and asks what it would take for rural schools to engage their communities and what, besides geography, makes a school rural. Kannapel et al claim that community concerns are not limited to rural schools and that advocates of systemic reform and rural…

Census data from 1940 to 1990 are used to analyze the relationship between educational achievement and economic progress. Results are inconsistent with the policy assumption that investing in education leads to economic increases, particularly for rural and low-income states. Noneconomic goals, such as fostering community development, should be…

Achievement in reading, math, science, and social studies was examined among rural, suburban, and urban school students using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988. Controlling for socioeconomic status and using nationally representative samples of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders, rural student achievement equalled or exceeded…

A study of seven high- and low-achieving elementary schools in West Virginia surveyed 1,389 parents, students, principals, teachers, and staff. Among two matched pairs of rural schools, high-achieving schools shared characteristics very different from those of low-achieving schools with equivalent poverty rates. Overall, school programs and…

The Annenberg Rural Challenge believes that high academic standards can help achieve excellence, but can also be exploited to serve other political purposes. Standards should originate in the community. The policy statement discusses three kinds of standards, the dangers of standards, and the relationship between high standards and educational…

Introduces the Standards Impact Research Group (SIRG) which investigates the effect of principles and standards on both policy and practice from a research perspective. Describes the rationale for creating this committee. (Author/ASK)

Evaluates the thinking of third grade students in relation to an instructional program in probability which was informed by a research-based framework that included a description of students' probabilistic thinking. Reveals that overcoming misconceptions in sample space, applying both part-part and part-whole reasoning, and using invented language…

Examines 26 studies on the relationship between anxiety toward mathematics and achievement in mathematics among elementary and secondary students. Indicates that the relationship is consistent across gender groups, grade-level groups, ethnic groups, instruments measuring anxiety, and years of publication. The relationship differs significantly…

Compares sixth-grade American students to three samples of (Chinese, Japanese, and Taiwanese) sixth-grade Asian students to determine if the well-documented mathematical achievement of students from these Asian nations might be due in part to a greater understanding of mathematical representations. Indicates that all Asian samples scored…

Examines possible differences in secondary students' conceptions of randomness before and after instruction in probability, which occurs for Spanish students between the ages of 14 and 17. Indicates that students' subjective understanding of randomness is close to some interpretations of randomness throughout history. Contains 16 references.…

Presents remarks adapted from the Presidential address from the 1999 annual meeting of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). Argues that the mathematics classroom teacher must create an environment that supports students' interests and mathematics growth at many different levels and ways in which to achieve this. Considers…

Sets the current public debate about gender and schooling in England into a historical and a United Kingdom-wide context, addressing the highly politicized context in which educational research on gender has taken place over the past 20 years, discussing the feminization of teaching, and examining attacks on English schools for failing boys as a…