Competing Views of Embryos for the Twenty-First Century: Textbooks and Society

It might seem that an embryo is an embryo, and that there would be a fact of the matter. That seems especially true with respect to the way embryos are presented in textbooks, including high school biology textbooks. This paper looks at three co-existing, competing, and often conflicting views of embryos. Then with a close study of twentieth century high school biology textbooks, it explores suggestions about the ways those books have influenced public impressions of embryos.     

Self-concept,school self-image,satisfaction, and involvement in an alternative high school

Alternative education emphasizes students' psychological development and academic achievement. The present paper reports a case study of the psychological correlates of students' adjustment to a small urban free school. It was expected that: (a) students would have high general self-concept, school selfimage, satisfaction, and involvement; (b) self-concept would discriminate between those high and low in school adjustment: and (c) there would be a positive relationship between school self-image, satisfaction, and involvement. Forty male and thirty female students voluntarily answered the New Morning Student Questionnaire (1972) and the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (Fitts, 1965). Results showed that students were psychologically well adjusted; they had a somewhat higher self-concept than the norm for high school students; self-concept was a good predictor of school self-image and satisfaction; and there was a positive relationship between school self-image, satisfaction, and involvement.     

Prediction of Post-High School Destination Choice from Curriculum,Financial Need,and Students’ Rating of Parents’ Wishes for Post-High School Occupation

Data from a survey of 2,431 students attending high schools in Hawaii indicated that students agreed with their parents’ wishes for post-high school occupation. Females tended to choose more academic post-high school destinations than males. An inverse relationship between academic high school curricula and post-high school academic goals was found, probably due to the fact that females were academically upwardly mobile. The need for financial assistance tended to decrease academic aspirations. It was concluded that knowledge of parental values, differences in academic aspirations between males and females, financial need, and a student’s high school curriculum would be valuable in helping students select post-high school destinations.     

Some economic guidelines for design of a charter school district

As the number of charter schools has grown nationally, there is increasing discussion of the consolidation of such schools into charter districts in which all schools would be charter schools from which parents would have the freedom to choose the school that they wished their student to attend. A major question is how such a charter school district would be organized to support its schools and who would perform the different functions required. It is argued that three economic guidelines need to be an important determinant of the solution to this question: the presence of economies of scale; transaction costs; and externalities. The article describes the application of these guidelines to the formation of a charter school district and suggests the different possibilities for addressing a range of important roles by schools, their districts and intermediate organizations and markets.     

用研究性学习的方法培养学生自主学习物理的意识

研究性学习是一种全新的学习方法和课程形式，在高中物理教学中，利用它可以转变学生的学习方法，培养学生自主学习的意识，可以发挥学生自我学习的潜能，培养学生科学探究的精神。     

Trends in the payoff to academic and occupation-specific skills: the short and medium run returns to academic and vocational high school courses for non-college-bound students

Using data from three longitudinal surveys of American high school students, I show that vocational courses helped non-college-bound students to start their work life more successfully. A comparison of the returns to academic and vocational course work for non-college-bound students who graduated in 1972, 1980 and 1992 finds that the short and medium term payoffs to vocational courses rose substantially between 1972 and 1980 and remained high in 1992. Holding a host of variables constant, academic course work had much smaller labour market payoffs than vocational course work. These findings contradict the often repeated claim that employers now seek workers with a good general education and are happy to teach the occupation specific skills necessary to do the job. High school students who do not plan to attend college full-time would be well advised to start studying a well paying occupation before they complete high school. [JEL: I20, J23, J24]     

类杜郎口数学教学模式与普通模式下学生学习比较

杜郎口中学是基础教育的一面旗帜,各地学校学习它会因校情而变,称为类杜郎口模式.类杜郎口模式下学生的学业成绩,在平均分、及格率、优秀率方面明显高于普通模式下的学生.类杜郎口模式较传统模式下的学生对数学的兴趣、态度有显著差异.类杜郎口模式下学生思维的准确性、敏捷性更高.     

Web-Based Student Assessment for Program Evaluation

As part of an overall evaluation of the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment, (GLOBE) program, we designed a Web-based assessment environment to measure students' environmental awareness and data analysis skill. It was expected that students who were identified as high implementers in the GLOBE program would outperform low implementers in their ability to construct environmental inferences and the degree to which they could analyze environmental data. Seven high and middle school classrooms were identified as either high or low GLOBE implementers depending on the amount of atmospheric data they had collected during the year. Within each classroom students were assigned into smaller learning groups of three students per group. A total of 32 groups participated in this study. Analysis of students' responses to the tasks revealed that the students differed in their performance. Overall, the results showed that students in the high implementing classrooms were more likely to construct higher-level environmental inferences than students in the low implementing classes. Contrary to expectations, middle school students were more likely than high school students to solve the data analysis problem correctly. However, upon further analyses, high school students constructed more data graphs and were more skilled in providing correct evidence to support their decision making than were middle school students in GLOBE. This study confirms the viability of using technology-based assessments for measuring students' environmental awareness and data analysis.     

Outstanding Students Should Be Encouraged to Apply for the Entrance Examinations to Key Schools

Mustering strength to run key schools successfully is one of the major tasks on the educational front. Many ordinary schools regard it as an unshirkable duty to supply key middle schools with junior high graduates who do well in their studies. Nevertheless, there are now some ordinary schools that, proceeding from selfish departmentalism, do not encourage their junior high graduates with better scholastic attainments to sign up for the entrance examination to senior grades of key middle schools. Instead, they caution the students, "If next semester you will continue to study at our school in senior grade one, we'll put you in the key class. If you apply for the entrance examination to a key school and return to our school when rejected, then it would be impossible for us to assign you to the key class." Some even warn, "You will not be accepted if you come back." In this way, a batch of students who do well in their studies are pressured not to sign up for the entrance examinations to key schools. They are afraid that they may have no opportunity to study at all if they fail in the entrance examinations. This practice is obviously wrong. If every school does things this way and every student with better scholastic aptitude does not apply for the key school, how can the key school recruit the better qualified? Where can the "better qualified" come from?     

A joint venture in urban high school reform

This article describes a joint attempt by the federal government, a private foundation, several local social service agencies, and a local school district to revitalize an urban high school and its neighboring community. This revitalization was to occur through the development of an information system that would provide high school students, adult learners, and community residents with data on educational and job opportunities in St. Louis. The information system was to be reinforced by counseling and referral services provided jointly by the school system and by local civic organizations.The intended purposes and potential impact of such a project that aims at urban high school reform are discussed. The paper provides some insights into the potential pitfalls involved in the implementation of small discretionary projects, as well as the promise of providing integrated social services to an urban population.Presently Assistant Vice President, The Fashion Institute of Technology.     

A Test of Gottfredson's Theory Using a Ten-Year Longitudinal Study

Occupational aspirations of a longitudinal sample of students were examined over a ten-year time period, from second to twelfth grade. Hypotheses from Gottfredson's theory of career development (1981, 1996) and from social learning theory (Lent, Brown & Hackett, 1994) were examined. The social value of children's occupational aspirations increased into the early high school years and started to fall by their senior year in high school when internal, unique personal factors were more evident in occupational aspirations as Gottfredson would predict. Through eighth grade, about 40 percent of boys and up to 20 percent of girls held occupational aspirations that could be classified as fantasy. Social learning theory suggests that children would relinquish fantasy occupational aspirations with age because of self-awareness and knowledge of the world of work. This change was evident as a significant shift toward more realistic occupational aspirations occurred during the late high school years.     

论中小学“数学情境与提出问题”的数学学习

创新源于问题，问题源于情境，在中小学数学教育中，应着力抓住创设数学情境与提出数学问题的“情境－问题”学习链，努力培养学生的创新意识和实践能力，以利于我国创造型人才的成长。     

Saving Face While Geeking Out: Video Game Testing as a Justification for Learning Computer Science

Why would individuals who are capable of learning opt not to? Learning is important for stability and success. It would seem rational that students in groups that are frequently underrepresented or marginalized would be motivated to learn. However, negotiation of multiple identities and self-beliefs can impact motivations to learn. For example, young African American males frequently adopt a “cool pose” in their approach to education. They maintain that they do not care and will not try to be a part of the existing educational system. To better understand these issues, we studied African American males in the Glitch Game Testers program. High school students in the Glitch program worked as paid game testers and took workshops in computer science. More than 65% of the participants went on to study computing after high school. We found that these students persisted with education and computing because they navigated around motivations to not learn by creating many different faces for their involvement with Glitch. In this article, we explore the use and design implications of face-saving tactics these young men used to “geek out” on computer programming, choose computer science for their career, and maintain their current identities with friends and families.     

Professor Paul Horst's Legacy: A Differential Prediction Model for Effective Guidance in Course Selection

The role of testing in determining college admissions and the impact of that testing on high school students are commanding increasing attention. There is emerging evidence that admissions decisions made solely on the basis of high school record can serve the college as well or better than decisions based, at least in part, on scores obtained on admissions tests. Further, though there is a recognized need for guidance, the tests in current use for admission provide limited information for helping students in making course selections that would make the best use of their abilities. This article reviews an alternative, long neglected and little known, for testing at the high school-college interface that would meet this need. Testing to provide differential prediction of college performance, as proposed by Paul Horst, focuses on allowing students to make the best match between their achievements, interests, and goals with the undergraduate programs of study available to them.     

Kindergarten knowledge of print conventions and later school achievement: A five-year follow-up

The Concepts About Print (CAP) test administered during kindergarten and first grade was shown to be highly correlated with various tests of school achievement obtained during the second through the fourth grades and to effectively predict those children who would later be retained in school. Based on the results of this longitudinal study, the CAP may be useful in the kindergarten and first grade as an early identifier of children who are relatively high educational risks.     

Students with autism transitioning from primary to secondary schools: parents’ perspectives and experiences

The transition from primary to high school can be a challenging process for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). During this time, research-based practices like home–school collaboration are crucial in facilitating a smoother transition. However, existing research indicates that the transition from primary to high school is a period of anxiety and reduced support for students with ASD and their families. This article describes the experiences of parents of students with ASD in regard to this transition and home–school collaboration. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 15 parents of children with ASD who attended mainstream government high schools in metropolitan Sydney. Through content analysis, parents were found to have received varying levels of transition support. Their experiences of home–school collaboration were, however, generally positive. Overall, it is recommended that parents’ knowledge of their children with ASD should be prioritised and utilised in transition planning. Findings also suggest that a greater implementation of practices including mandated transition planning and home–school collaboration in schools would contribute to more authentic inclusion of students with ASD.     

幼儿教师与中小学教师主要工作压力事件及应付方式之比较

幼儿教师心理健康问题日益引起全社会的关注。本研究旨在借开展武汉市中小幼教师工作压力及应付方式调查的契机,通过对幼儿教师和中小学教师主要工作压力事件的排序及应付方式的选择情况进行比较,寻找其中的相同点和不同点,并尝试对其原因进行相关分析。     

The school-to-work transition for high school dropouts

This paper presents a conceptual framework for understanding the problems encountered by high school dropouts in their school-to-work transition. The underlying assumption is that dropouts are likely to face strains in their homes, jobs, and other community settings that are similar to those which led them to leave school. Exemplary school and work programs for dropouts are discussed and implications drawn for their design. A youth advocacy system is recommended that could stimulate adaptation by the educational and employment sectors to the needs and personal styles of dropouts as well as help dropouts to make informed choices about their educational and career potentials. Such a system would also help the dropout to identify the most appropriate settings for realizing those potentials.     

Can a public scholarship program successfully reduce school drop-outs in a time of economic crisis? Evidence from Indonesia

This paper evaluates the role played by Indonesia's Social Safety Net Scholarships Program in reducing school drop-out rates during the Asian financial crisis. The expectation was that many families would find it difficult to keep their children in school and drop-out rates would be high. The scholarships are found to have been effective in reducing drop-outs at the level of schooling at which students were historically most at the risk of dropping out—lower secondary school. At this level drop-outs were reduced by about 3.0% points (or 38%) and costs were recovered. Given its success, the program can be viewed as a model to be followed by other countries that find themselves in a similar situation of crisis. How well the program adhered to its documented targeting design and how effective this design was in reaching the poor is also examined.