A Comparison Study of AVID and GEAR UP 10th-Grade Students in Two High Schools in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas

Since the mid 1990s, reading instruction has changed and so has the School Development Program's (SDP) Essentials of Literacy (EOL) process. Beginning as a teaching suggestion at one New Haven, Connecticut school, Lincoln Bassett, EOL became a pilot project at Davis Street School in New Haven for the 1996-1997 school year and continues to be an implemented model in that school. Due to the results the program yielded at Davis, it was expanded to several other schools in the district and, for the last 4 years, has been the district's accepted intervention model.     

An exploratory investigation examining the cues that students use to form initial impressions and expectancies of lecturers

The aim of this study was to examine the informational cues that students perceive to be influential when developing initial impressions and expectancies of a lecturer. Undergraduate university students (n = 452) were required to rate the extent to which 30 informational cues (e.g. gender, qualifications) influence their initial perceptions of a lecturer. Following exploratory factor analysis (EFA), a five-factor model (i.e. appearance (APP), accessories (ACC), third party reports (TPR), communication skills (CS), nationality/ethnicity (NE) was extracted. Inspection of mean scores identified that students rated TPR (e.g. teaching experience) and CS (e.g. speed of speech) to be influential factors in forming initial impressions and expectancies of a lecturer. The findings identify the potential for expectancy effects within student–lecturer interactions.     

Factors Influencing Zoo Visitors' Conservation Attitudes and Behavior

Abstract

The author predicted that Zoo Atlanta visitors who had interactive experience with the zoo's elephant demonstration and bio-fact program would be more likely to actively support elephant conservation than those who simply viewed the animals in their exhibit and read graphics. The survey instruments used in this research consisted of 25 closed-ended questions, petitions, and conservation-action solicitation cards. A random sample of 471 zoo visitors was selected, and 350 individuals completed the survey, signed petitions, and took solicitation cards. The overall return rate of the solicitation cards was 18.3%; the return rate was higher for visitors who had higher levels of interaction with the elephant exhibit. The return rates by experience were highest—29.7%, high—20.3%, undetermined—14.8%, low—14.3%, and lowest—11.6%. For the five categories of experience, the distribution of return rates was not random, χ²(4,N = 64) = 9.88, p < .04.     

Managing race in social work education policy

This article traces the discursive and technical ‘moves’ that characterized a ten‐plus‐year struggle to incorporate issues of race and racial inequity into the accreditation standards for Canadian social work schools. Its intent is not to provide a chronological account but rather to describe and analyse the various ways in which the problem of race and racial domination was represented. The article is constructed on two sources of primary data: 1. Semi‐structured qualitative interviews that were conducted with 13 Canadian social work educators between May 1999 and November 2000; and 2. Textual data in the form of letters, minutes of meetings and reports housed in the archives of the Canadian Association of Schools of Social Work (CASSW).     

Traditional and contemporary influences upon British house of commons debate

Today's House of Commons debate and debaters have been shaped by both traditional and contemporary influences. This essay identifies the most significant of these influences as they appear to an American observer.     

Pathways From Toddler Information Processing to Adolescent Lexical Proficiency

This study examined the relation of 3‐year core information‐processing abilities to lexical growth and development. The core abilities covered four domains—memory, representational competence (cross‐modal transfer), processing speed, and attention. Lexical proficiency was assessed at 3 and 13 years with the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) and verbal fluency. The sample (N = 128) consisted of 43 preterms (< 1750 g) and 85 full‐terms. Structural equation modeling indicated concurrent relations of toddler information processing and language proficiency and, independent of stability in language, direct predictive links between (a) 3‐year cross‐modal ability and 13‐year PPVT and (b) 3‐year processing speed and both 13‐year measures, PPVT and verbal fluency. Thus, toddler information processing was related to growth in lexical proficiency from 3 to 13 years.