Implementing School Restructuring in the Inner City

The purpose of this research was to examine school reform at a local level. Our analysis centered on the impact that the Accelerated Schools model had on two inner-city elementary schools in New Orleans. Key to our interpretation was addressing prevalent social issues, including poverty, racism, and single-parent families, embedded in everyday life in urban communities. The findings illuminate the need to resolve racial, social, and ideological conflicts for school change to take root in inner-city schools.     

EVALUATING STATE STUDENT GRANT PROGRAMS: A Case Study of Washington's Grant Program

The lack of workable approaches for evaluatingthe effects of state student grant programs may havecontributed to the problems that advocates for theseprograms have had in securing funding in the past decade. This study pilot tests a new, moreworkable approach to assessing the effects of changes infunding for state grant programs on college persistence.This case study of the State of Washington's grant program indicates that an increase instate funds for need-based grants in 1993-94 resulted inimproved within-year persistence in public four-yearuniversities. The study illustrates that it is possible for states to undertake systematic evaluationsof their grant programs.     

Perceived Norms and Marijuana Use at Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Relatively little is known about the extent of marijuana use and related risk‐taking behavior by college students on historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Undergraduate students (N = 212) from an HBCU in the southern region of the United States completed anonymous questionnaires that assessed their marijuana‐related behaviors and perceptions. Logistic regression analysis revealed risk factor profiles that provide college counselors with greater insight into prevention and treatment on HBCU campuses.     

The timing of middle-childhood peer rejection and friendship: linking early behavior to early-adolescent adjustment

This study used a sample of 551 children surveyed yearly from ages 6 to 13 to examine the longitudinal associations among early behavior, middle-childhood peer rejection and friendedness, and early-adolescent depressive symptoms, loneliness, and delinquency. The study tested a sequential mediation hypothesis in which (a) behavior problems in the early school years are associated with middle-childhood peer rejection and (b) rejection, in turn, leads to lower friendedness and subsequently higher adolescent internalizing--but not externalizing--problems. Results supported this sequential mediation model for internalizing outcomes and revealed an additional path from early disruptiveness to loneliness via peer rejection alone. No evidence of sequential mediation was observed for delinquency.     

Variations in methods of calculating reliability of duration data

The traditional percentage and correlational methods of estimating reliability of duration recording were compared to the reliability obtained with an event-by-event examination of observers' records in which the actual percentage of time that the observers were in agreement was calculated. While observing standardized videotapes, eight volunteer undergraduate students recorded “studying” using a specific definition and “not eating” using a nonspecific definition. The order of persentation and level of definition specificity were reversed for eight additional volunteer observers. Recordings were done on an event recorder. It was found that the traditional percentage reliability scores were significantly higher than actual (event-by-event) observer agreement for both behaviors, at both levels of definition specificity. Correlational reliability coefficients were significantly greater than event-by-event scores for specific definitions only. Implications of the findings include the possibility that duration recording, which does not involve a permanent product (e.g., when using a stopwatch), may be periodically checked for reliability with an event recorder, or that interval recording may be used.     

Professional Staff Making a Difference: Cultural Change in Higher Education

Innovative Higher Education - Higher education scholarship is focused largely on professors who guide students in their learning and students who participate in the educational process. The...