Despite the numerous intervention programmes provided by the Department of Education to make a difference in Grade 12 exam results, there are schools that are still performing below expected national and provincial standards. Although the Department of Education has provided strategies to improve the performance of Grade 12 learners, the four schools investigated in the Mount Frere district of the Eastern Cape are still performing poorly. These schools performance has been compared with the National and Provincial percentages from 1998 to 2001 and exhibits an alarming failing gap. During these years the pass percentage increase in the Eastern Cape was 7.72% in 1998, 14.6% in 1999. 15.9% in 2000 and 22.3% in 2001, showing a great decline during the years 1999 and 2001. Respondents believe that full involvement of stakeholders in schools and availability of resources would yield better exam results. Supervision by the School Management Teams is another important aspect that seemed to be neglected by the principals, deputy principals and heads of divisions. Educators' attitudes towards supervision should be made positive so that they see it as a development strategy more than an evaluation procedure. Limitations which include incomplete information, time constraints, the attitudes of stakeholders towards research, sampling and the compilation of the findings, did not have a severe impact on the recommendations. An important advantage of this investigation is that openness from respondents was achieved to a very great extent. Clearly there is a need to investigate this poor performance of Grade 12 learners which ranges from 33% to 20% pass rate during the 1998 to 2001 in the four schools. The provincial averages were 44.6%, 40.1%, 49.8% and 45.6% during the years investigated. Surely this investigation and the application of its recommendations can improve the performance of Grade 12 learners in these schools and those operating under the same conditions. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of Durban-Westville, 2004.

The purpose of the study was to determine possible relationships existing between elementary student retention and academic performance, as measured by standardized achievement tests legally mandated by state initiatives in minimum competency testing, for a four year period beginning with the year culminating in retention. The study also attempted to determine if the relationship is affected by the grade level of retention, gender, ethnicity, or mental aptitude.Subjects of the study were 220 elementary students from a large metropolitan school district in central Indiana, half of whom had been retained in grades one or two, and half of whom were randomly selected and had never been retained. Using achievement data collected from the MacMillan/McGraw-Hill standardized achievement tests, CTB/4 and CAT E/F, the relationships of achievement scores in reading, language expression, and mathematics between and within the two groups were analyzed. Mental aptitude data from The Test of Cognitive Skills (CTB MacMillan/McGrawHill), and data on gender and ethnicity, were also examined to determine the effect of these variables. Multivariate analysis of variance and multiple regression analysis were employed to analyze the various relationships using the P<.05 level of significance.The study found that (a) for the longitudinal period, retained student performance did not reach the-mean of the promoted group; (b) grade level of retention yielded different longitudinal patterns of performance, but did improve the relationship between retained and promoted student performance in either grade; and (c) mental aptitude, but not gender and ethnicity, was significantly related to student performance.The study concluded that (a) retention is not effective in raising substandard performance to promoted peer levels over a four year period, (b) retention is most effective for improving performance in the repeated year, (c) students retained at grade two maintain performance gains better than students retained in grade one, and (d) mental aptitude plays a significant role in the evaluation of the effectiveness of retention. / Department of Educational Leadership

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of the first three years of a special ongoing intervention program on the academic performance and attitudes of 8th grade participants. Academic growth and current attitudes of students in the program were compared with academic growth and attitudes of a similar group of eighth-grade students. A third group of students was used for comparison purposes. All students involved in the study were eighth-grade students enrolled in a midwestern school district.Major conclusions derived from the findings included: Grade point averages for participants in a Special Intervention Program were significantly higher than CPA's for similar non-participants. In fact, CPA's for Program participants were not significantly different from CPA's for the completely random sample.California Achievement Test scores for participants in a Special Intervention Program were significantly higher than CAT scores for similar non-participants. In fact, CAT, scores for Program participants were not significantly different from CAT scores for the completely random sample.Participation in a Special Intervention Program did not significantly affect students' school attendance, punctuality, or Behavior Rating Profile Scores inasmuch as there were no significant differences between any of the groups studied for those variables. / Department of Educational Leadership

The purpose of the study was to compare the academic achievement of students having a junior high school experience to those having a middle school experience. sample consisted of eighth-grade students from the Mississinewa Community Schools in Gas City, Indiana. The scores of 420 students having a junior high school experience were compared to the scores of 762 students following the reorganization of the middle grades into a middle school.The Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, (Form 7) were used as a measure of academic achievement. The test results were compared based upon sex and ability group differences. The Cognitive Abilities Tests, (Form 3) were used to determine ability group. A two-by-two-by-three multivariate analysis of variance was used to statistically analyze the data.Findings1. A significant difference was found in favor of the middle school in the areas of vocabulary,reading, spelling, math concepts and math problems.2. Both males and females attained higher academic achievement scores in the middle school setting than in the junior high school setting.3. Students in average, below average and above average ability groups attained higher academic achievement scores in the middle school setting than in the junior high school setting.4. Larger academic achievement gains were made by students with greater ability levels.Conclusions1. The academic achievement was higher for eighthgrade students having a middle school experience than for those having a junior high school experience.2. The middle school is more beneficial to the academic achievement of both males and females than the junior high school experience.3. Students with higher ability levels attained higher academic achievement gains in the middle school than students with less ability.

The purpose of the study was to determine what relationship, if any, existed between student absence from school and student performance on standardized achievement tests. The study was designed to provide statistical data for educators and others interested in efforts to improve public education.Subjects of the study were students from a large school district in northern Indiana. Students included in the study were selected from those enrolled in the identified school corporation four consecutive years, from 1983-84 (grade 2) through 1986-87 (grade 5). A one-third representative sample of 500 subjects was selected from the total eligible population of 1,505 studentsData collected regarding the subjects of the study included sex, race, IQ scores, percentile ranks from subtest scores on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and the California Achievement Test for grades 2 and 3 and grades 4 and 5 respectively, and the total number of days absent from school for the school years 1983-84 through 1986-87.Achievement subtest scores were converted from percentile ranks to normalized standard deviation zscores. Absence rates were also converted to z-scores for statistical comparison.The hypothesis stated in null form was: No relationship exists between student absence from school and student performance on standardized achievement tests at the elementary school level. Path analysis, or causal analysis, a special application of regression analysis, was the technique used to test the hypothesis. Achievement test performance was predicted from a weighted combination of independent variables and control variables. Predicted achievement test performance was compared to observed achievement test performance to determine whether absence could account for any variation between the two scores.Small but significant relationships were identified in simple correlations pertaining to the data for grade 5. The significant correlations were not maintained, however, when all control variables were computed into the regression analysis equation. The null hypothesis was not rejected. / Department of Educational Administration and Supervision

The three purposes of this study were:1. To identify the predominant perceptual modalities from among visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and mixed modalities for first graders;2. To ascertain differences, if any, in cognitive ability levels among the four perceptual modality groups;3. With cognitive ability controlled, to determine the achievement levels in reading, language, and mathematics among the visual, auditory, and mixed modality groups and among students assigned to the teacher modality groups; and to determine the effects on student achievement when student and teacher modalities matched.Perceptual modality, cognitive ability, and achievement data were collected for 165 students in 12 classrooms. Statistical analyses including Chi-square, analysis of variance, and multivariate analysis of covariance were utilized to test five hypotheses. The .05 Alpha level was established to test the statistical significance of the hypotheses.Findings1. Significant differences were found in the percentages of first graders preferring different modalities. The largest percentage of students preferred the visual modalitywhile the smallest percentage preferred the kinesthestic modality.2. Differences in cognitive ability levels among the four perceptual modality groups were not significant.3. With cognitive ability controlled, achievement was not enhanced when student and teacher modality preferences matched. Also, no significant differences in achievement among the student modality groups or among the students assigned to the different teacher modality groups were found.Conclusions1. Differences in preferred perceptual modalities among first graders were identified. The largest group of students preferred the visual modality.2. Significant differences in cognitive ability levels among modality groups did not exist.3. Matching student and teacher modality groups did not enhance achievement.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2007. / "Graduate Program in Psychology." Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-92).

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2006. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 162-165). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

The subject of creativity is of interest not only to the research worker and educationist but also, with its related mental health aspect, to the clinical psychologist. As the writer's interest is in clinical psychology the opportunity, which occurred in 1968, to undertake research on creativity, was welcomed. This opportunity arose out of a larger piece of research into the relationships between personality variables and mathematical ability in school children. This involved the administration of personality tests and tests of arithmetic and mathematical ability to all the English speaking school children in Grahamstown from Standard 2 to Standard 10. The writer assisted in this testing program and did the greater part of the marking, scoring and entering on computer sheets. Thus personality test scores for over 2,000 children from the age of 8 or 9 to 17 or 18, both boys and girls were available. It was found possible to extend the computer program to calculate a score for creativity based on a combination of Cattell's personality factors and it was decided to compare these creativity scores with actual school performance, as measured by internal school examinations, which with the cooperation and agreement of the Cape Education Department and local schools, the writer was able to obtain. Intro., p.1.