Engaging youth in school and learning: The emerging key to school success and completion

This commentary on articles in this special issue of Psychology in the Schools discusses the importance of school completion by identifying the individual and social costs associated with youths who fail to complete school. An appreciation of these various costs sets the stage for exploring an “emerging” key to school completion—engaging students in school and learning. A brief review of articles in this special issue directs attention toward various aspects of engagement, including conceptual insight and practical interventions. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The reaction of managers to the pre- acquisition stage of a corporate merger: A qualitative study

Conclusion The study in this article provided insights into the emotional needs of managers during the Preacquisition Stage of a potential acquisition. One manager claimed that mergers are the wave of the future. If one of six managers believes this in the retail industry, then we might assume that one out of every six employees has thought this at some time in his/her working life or at least thought about how mergers in general affect his/her working life. Therefore, it seems vital that retail employees have the attitude that Acquisitions, of course, produce stress, but they are not always bad experiences that end up hurting the employees. With the opposite attitude, the Preacquisition Stage will most likely be fraught with low employee morale, increased stress, resistance to change, higher turnover, and lower productivity.The managers in the current study shared their reactions to the announcement of a potential merger. As can be expected, much stress and uneasiness was occurring. The suggested interventions in this article will help the EAP counselor respond to the stress through crisis, preventive, and educational methods. The employee assistance counselor can no longer wait for the merger to occur; rather, he/she must be involved early in the merger process, during the Preacquisition Stage. If employee assistance counselors do not begin insisting on early involvement, business mergers may remain on a contractual level only. The contractual level allows Hunsaker and Coombs (1988) to conclude that the psychological needs of the merging work forces are not typically considered, and people issues are mishandled as the acquirer improvises instead of following a strategically designed, systematically conducted program for corporate integration (p. 57). A systematically conducted program may help managers and employees feel more secure about their own careers; thus, about mergers in general.     

The college student grant study: The effectiveness of student grant and scholarship programs in promoting equal educational opportunity

During the last few years there has been an increased emphasis on the use of student scholarships and grants to promote postsecondary access and choice. This study of scholarship and grant programs in California, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania examines the extent to which this goal is being achieved. Highlights of the findings are that these state aid programs (1) induce a substantial number of students from low-income families to attend college, although they fail to have much impact on the very lowest income students; (2) are particularly helpful to women; and (3) overall, are responsible for the postsecondary attendance of nearly one half of the aid recipients.     

Teachers as tutors: Shadow education market dynamics in Georgia

International Review of Education -     

Japanese Adolescents' Disclosure and Information Management With Parents

Adolescents' obligation to disclose and their actual disclosure about their activities to parents, justifications for nondisclosure, and strategies for information management were examined in different domains in 460 middle adolescents (M_age = 16.6 years) from working and middle‐class families in Japan. Adolescents felt most obligated to disclose prudential issues, but disclosed most about personal issues. Adolescents primarily justified nondisclosure with claims to personal choice and for prudential issues, concerns with parental disapproval. They rarely lied and mostly told parents if asked or avoided the issue. Findings revealed consistencies with prior work on disclosure with European and U.S. adolescents, as well as patterns specific to the Japanese cultural setting.     

A reassessment of the effects of inquiry-based science curricula of the 60's on student performance

In this project a re-synthesis of the research dealing with student performance in new science curricula was conducted using the refined statistical procedures proposed by Hedges (1981, 1982a, 1982b, 1982c) and Hedges and Olkin (1985). The results of the re-synthesis generally supported the conclusions drawn in the earlier meta-analysis by Shymansky, Kyle, and Alport (1983); i.e., that the new science curricula of the 60's and 70's were more effective in enhancing student performance than traditional textbook-based programs of the time. But the re-synthesis also revealed some notable differences as well. For example, in the re-synthesis mean effects were significantly positive on four performance clusters (achievement, process skills, problem solving, and attitude) compared to seven clusters in the earlier analysis, and then by a smaller margin (the 1981 mean was 0.34 and the 1986 mean was 0.25). In one case (related skills), the mean effect changed from a +0.25 (significant at the 0.05 level) to –0.10. But perhaps more important than any particular change in the many analyses performed, the application of refined statistical procedures in the re-synthesis yielded results of greater precision than those generated in the original study. Thus, it is recommended that the data generated in this re-synthesis be used in any discussion of the effects of the new science curricula on student performance.