High School Course-Taking and Post-Secondary Institutional Selectivity

High School Course of Study in Music

This paper compared the 2009 edition and the 2018 edition of Japanese high school course of study, and analyzed the reinforcement of theme-based learning in Geography and History and the change in history education thereof. The results of analysis are as follows; First, instead of abolishing the four history subjects (World History A·B, Japanese History A·B) of the 2009 edition of the high school Geography and History, the required subject, Modern and Contemporary History, and optional subjects, Advanced Japanese History and Advanced World History, were newly established. These three subjects introduce the content composition and learning method with theme-based learning as the key element. Second, while the 2009 edition described the purpose of theme-based learning as cultivating historical thinking skills as before, the 2018 edition reflects the nature of the competence-based curriculum and presents the qualities and abilities (knowledge and skills, thinking skills, judgment, expressive power, etc.) to be fostered in history subjects. Third, from the perspective of content composition, the 2009 edition relates to theme-based learning on the premise of syntactic composition as before, but the 2018 version shows a switch to a new composition that relates the entire content centering on theme-based learning, instead of syntactic composition. Fourth, in the 2009 edition, the learning method was systematized to improve learning ability and learner''s subjectivity step by step, while considering the characteristics of each subject, which was passed on to the 2018 edition too. The biggest change in the 2018 edition was to develop a new type of learning activity, connecting content composition and learning methods focusing on theme-based learning. The major items of each subject were organized in the form of unit learning with theme-based learning as an important element. In addition, the 2018 edition connected major items so that students can develop independent learning activities step by step. Fifth, the prerequisites and tasks to settle theme-based learning in the schools are; ①improvement of history textbook composition system and description method, ②changeover from teacher’s fact-delivery class to course that promotes students'' independent learning and exploratory activities, ③providing various and abundant teaching materials, ④ implementation of teachers’ training to develop skills necessary for new types of class, etc.

There is debate over whether Asian American students are admitted to selective colleges and universities at lower rates than white students with similar academic qualifications. However, there have been few empirical investigations of this issue, in large part due to a dearth of data. Here we present the results from analyzing 685,709 applications from Asian American and white students to a subset of selective U.S. institutions over five application cycles, beginning with the 2015–2016 cycle. The dataset does not include admissions decisions, and so we construct a proxy based in part on enrollment choices. Based on this proxy, we estimate the odds that Asian American applicants were admitted to at least one of the schools we consider were 28% lower than the odds for white students with similar test scores, grade-point averages, and extracurricular activities. The gap was particularly pronounced for students of South Asian descent (49% lower odds). We trace this pattern in part to two factors. First, many selective colleges openly give preference to the children of alumni, and we find that white applicants were substantially more likely to have such legacy status than Asian applicants, especially South Asian applicants. Second, after adjusting for observed student characteristics, the institutions we consider appear less likely to admit students from geographic regions with relatively high shares of applicants who are Asian. We hope these results inform ongoing discussions on the equity of college admissions policies.

This study explores factors enhancing the likelihood that three demographically disadvantaged groups of selective science high school graduates would complete a university STEM degree 4-6 years later. The target groups are labeled as disadvantaged in terms of STEM pipeline persistence compared to school peers, and include: (1) women, (2) those without a parent in a STEM field, and (3) those whose parents were not educated beyond high school. Employing Social Cognitive Career Theory as a conceptual framework, we focus on two categories of factors. Individual factors incorporate motivation and career intention brought to the high school experience. Environmental factors include graduates' high school experiences related to their STEM interest and capacity development. The individual variables include: STEM career intentions prior to high school, motivation for attending a specialized science high school, and motivation for pursuing advanced science courses in high school. Environmental factors include whether participants partook in an authentic research experience, had a mentor, felt they belonged at the school, maintained their interest in STEM as well as perceived intellectual capacity for STEM throughout high school. The results have promising implications for educational policy associated with STEM talented students.

The Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) has been used to document and track an achievement gap between white and minority students in Texas. Some educators have credited the TAAS with fueling a drive to close the achievement gap while others suggest that TAAS scores may be misleading because of factors such as score inflation and a possible ceiling effect. The purpose of this study was to analyze the gap in mathematics achievement for eighth grade students. The study compared TAAS and National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test results to determine if the achievement gap between white, Hispanic, and African-American Students had narrowed between 1996 and 2000. Results indicate that TAAS mean scores increased significantly for all three ethnic groups between 1996 and 2000. Comparison of the TAAS test score frequency distributions for each ethnic group indicated that white students' scores shifted from the middle to the upper portion of the test score range while minority students' scores shifted from the lower to the middle and higher score range. Both white and minority students' TAAS test score distributions were significantly more negatively skewed in 2000 than in 1996. Comparisons between white and minority students' TAAS scores showed that white students had significantly higher scores than either Hispanic or African-American students in both 1996 and 2000. Comparison of mean score differences in 1996 and 2000 indicated that the achievement gap between white and minority students had narrowed. NAEP scores increased significantly from 1996 to 2000 for Hispanic students, but not for white or African-American students. However, test score distribution patterns showed small positive changes for all three ethnic groups. Comparisons between ethnic groups indicated that there were significant differences between white and minority students' scores in both 1996 and 2000. Comparison of mean score differences in 1996 and 2000 indicated that the achievement gap between Hispanic white students had narrowed slightly but that there was no change in the achievement gap between white and African-American students. Analysis of the TAAS test score distribution patterns indicated the likelihood that a ceiling effect had impacted students' scores. The evidence for a ceiling effect was strongest for white students. In 2000, 60.4% of white students had a TAAS score that fell in the top 10% of the score range. In contrast, there was no evidence of a ceiling effect for the NAEP. Mean score gains on the TAAS are only partially substantiated by the NAEP data. Furthermore, there is a very strong possibility that a ceiling effect artificially restricted the 2000 TAAS scores for white students and created the illusion that the achievement gap between minority and white students had been narrowed.

p zERHAPS it is inappropriate to discuss an academic career in terms of abnormal psychology, but my scholarly enterprises have developed in two separate directions, embracing, on the one hand, early American intellectual history and, on the other, comparative literature, particularly the European Enlightenment, the Hispanic world, and western relations with China and Japan. Although nearly all of my books have been concerned with colonial or federal America, specifically with Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, and Jonathan Edwards, most of my university teaching has not touched early America at all. I do not complain of this apparent academic schizophrenia-indeed, I am grateful for it-but I do consider it paradoxical. I have already discussed my experiences as a comparatist in a special issue in I983 of the German periodical Arcadia honoring its editor, and so I shall limit myself here to early America. My grammar school training in the public school system of Buffalo, New York, was excellent, but my high school experience was a disaster. I am, nevertheless, grateful to Buffalo, where I was born in 1915, for its public library and Albright Art Gallery, both of which compensated for the dismal teaching and lackadaisical guidance of my high school and kept me from becoming a dropout during the Depression, the only period in the annals of American secondary education when students were being offered postgraduate courses in high school in order to keep them off the streets. Fortunately, during this difficult period I retained my love for books and respect for education as a cultural institution and harbored no doubts about the advantages of proceeding to college. As an undergraduate at Indiana University I intended to specialize in history, but because of the inspiring teaching method of one of my French professors, Bert Young, I decided to switch to literature. Since I realized that more jobs were available in English than in French, however, I expanded my areas of preparation, graduating with majors in history, English, French, and education. The teaching method of Professor Young that I greatly admired and have subsequently imitated as much as possible is that of assigning library research projects to be organized and delivered as class reports. With this method, the course content is open-ended except for chronological limits, and the object of instruction is the stimulation of individual mental development, not the transmission of a prescribed dosage of information. After Indiana, I moved to the University of Georgia for an M.A., motivated by a wanderlust which still lingers. During these years of economic stress, the Deep South was almost as exotic me for as Korea and

The purpose of this study was to examine the mathematics ability and efficacy of Florida preservice agricultural education teachers. Results indicated that the preservice teachers were not proficient in solving agricultural mathematics problems. On the other hand, the preservice teachers were efficacious in personal teaching efficacy and personal mathematics efficacy, and moderately efficacious in their mathematics teaching efficacy. Additionally, the associations between mathematics ability and mathematics coursework suggest that preservice teachers that completed an advanced mathematics course in high school and/or college scored higher on the mathematics assessment than preservice teachers that completed a basic or intermediate mathematics course in high school and/or college. However, only a small percentage of the preservice teachers completed an advanced mathematics course in high school and/or college. Based on the data collected in this study, the teacher education program at the University of Florida may need to further evaluate its mathematics coursework requirements.

实践教学是以培养学生实践能力为目的，与理论教学相辅相成的一种教学模式。本文对实践教学的类型和特征分别展开了分析，其类型包括课堂实践教学、校园实践教学、校外实践教学，其特征包括：实践性、主体性、生活性、创新性、时效性。根据当前中学思想政治课实践教学的理论研究，论述了针对中学思想政治实践课实践教学现状，开展中学思想政治课实践教学研究的目的和意义。同时，对于中学思想政治课实践教学存在缺少理论指导、教育理念偏差、缺乏经验借鉴、实践教学的实施、组织困难等问题，提出解决这些问题的几点建议和对策：加强实践教学的理论研究；提高中学思想政治课实践教学的重视程度；借鉴国内外好的实践教学经验；完善中学实践教学的长效机制。 Practical teaching is a kind of teaching mode which is complementary to theoretical teaching aiming at cultivating students’ practical ability. In this paper, the types and characteristics of the practice teaching are analyzed; its types include classroom practice teaching, practice teaching in campus, and practice teaching in society. And its features include: Practicality, subjectivity, cha-racteristics of life, innovation, and timeliness. According to the theoretical research of the practical teaching of ideological and political courses in high school, this paper shows the present situation of practical teaching in high school and discusses the purpose and significance of the practice teaching of ideological and political courses in high school. At the same time, there are some problems about the practice teaching of ideological and political courses in middle school, such as lack of theoretical guidance, deviation of education idea, lack of experience reference, the difficulties of the practice teaching implementation and organization and so on. So some suggestions and countermeasures are given: To strengthen the theoretical study of teaching practice; to pay more attention to political lesson practice teaching in the high school; to draw lessons from domestic and international good practice teaching experience; to improve the long-term mechanism of the practice teaching in the high school.

This study explores the extent to which student, family, peer, and school factors predict (a) whether students take Advanced Placement® (AP®) courses, International Baccalaureate (IB) courses, and dual enrollment courses and (b) in models limited to course takers, how many courses they completed. Our findings, based on a nationally representative, longitudinal sample, suggest that, when it comes to college‐level high school course taking, the relative advantage of higher socioeconomic status (SES) is less for African American students than it is for White and Asian students. Ninth‐grade math skills are the strongest predictor of AP or IB and dual enrollment course taking, above and beyond demographic background characteristics like SES and race or ethnicity. High school girls take AP/IB and dual enrollment courses at a higher rate than boys, and they take more of these courses. The level of academic focus of students and their peers is associated with both AP or IB and dual enrollment course taking, whereas having parents focused on college preparation and course taking only predicts AP or IB course taking. School factors associated with AP or IB course taking include U.S. region and rural location; the percentage of math teachers with a master's degree is also positively associated with the number of AP or IB courses students take. These findings highlight the importance of equitable educational opportunities starting from a young age. They also indicate a need for increased early attention to student math skills and for more supports for parents and school staff to enable them to encourage and prepare all students, especially those from historically marginalized groups, to take college‐level courses in high school.

This article examines the benefits and tradeoffs for African American professional educators and students that resulted from the profound Brown v. Board of Education decision. It addresses the impact of the Brown decision immediately after it was rendered for African American educators and students and the legacy of Brown for both of these groups during the previous 50th years. The article also presents the findings from a study of 36 current and recently retired African American high school principals in North Carolina and Alabama to determine their perceptions of the legacy of the Brown decision for both African American educators and high school students. Additionally, the article presents the views of a small sample of these principals who were interviewed regarding the degree to which African American high school students are currently involved in student leadership roles and school activities. Results of the study indicated that the vast majority of the respondents believed that Brown had benefited both African American educators and students; however, they indicated that it had some unintended consequences such as a precipitous drop in the number of African American teachers to serve as role models, competent professionals, and authority figures for students-both Black and White. Furthermore, they perceive that, particularly in integrated high schools where White students are in the majority, the curriculum usually does not adequately address the history, contributions, culture, and experiences of African Americans. Moreover, the principals perceive that African American students in fully integrated schools, with few exceptions, are underrepresented in school leadership roles and are often reluctant to run for elective leadership positions because they usually do not believe they can win. INTRODUCTION On May 17, 1954, at 12:52 p.m., the United States Supreme Court rendered its momentous decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954). The fundamental public policy that the court unanimously ruled upon was straightforward: segregated schools (established and maintained by state action) were inherently unequal. The court clearly said, through its ruling, that but was, in fact, a contradiction in terms-official state sanctioned segregation was a violation of the protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which forbids any state from making or enforcing any laws which deny any person within its jurisdiction the protection of the laws. Prior to the Supreme Court's ruling, dual and segregated school systems had been established and maintained for African American and White students. These schools systems were primarily in the southern states where Jim Crow laws had prevailed after reconstruction. Ironically, the rationale for establishing and maintaining de jure segregated schools had been also formalized by the United States Supreme Court in another momentous decision, Plessy v. Ferguson, in 1896, which legitimized the principle of separate but equal (1896). The case evolved from a suit filed by Homer Plessy, a Black man who had filed suit after he had initially been fined for sitting in the White section of a railroad car in Louisiana. His case questioned the constitutionality of an act of the General Assembly of the State of Louisiana, passed in 1890, providing for railway carriages for the White and colored races. Plessy contested the decision all the way to the United States Supreme Court, which upheld the state's but doctrine. In the Plessy decision, the Supreme Court gave racial inequality and segregation an air of legitimacy for over a half century. Moreover, it served to institutionalize racial segregation and social norms, particularly in me South, in both public and private arenas. Not only did the decision condone and maintain racially railroad cars and other modes of public transportation, it virtually assured segregation in schools and school activities, courthouses, waiting rooms, public beaches, swimming pools, restaurants, bathrooms and drinking fountains. …

The number of undergraduates entering computer science has declined in recent years. This is paralleled by a drop in the number of high school students taking the CS AP exam and the number of high schools offering computer science courses. The declines come at a time when career opportunities in CS continue to grow and computer science graduates are seen as crucial in building a globally competitive workforce for the 21st century. Efforts aimed at reversing the declining interest in computer science include curriculum revisions at the undergraduate level at many institutions, a re-design of computer science AP courses [1], and the inclusion of computational thinking into disciplines outside computer science [3].This panel discusses four projects of computer science researchers collaborating with high school teachers on integrating computing and computational thinking into their courses. The majority of the high school teachers involved is teaching science and math courses. They are teaching a diverse group of talented and college-bound students. The goal of all projects is to integrate computing into disciplines represented in the high school curriculum and to raise the awareness of computer science as an exciting and intellectually rewarding field.This panel will outline recent and on-going activities and interaction with high school teachers. Each panelist will describe how he/she got involved and the nature of the interaction. The panelists will talk about their individual projects, outline their visions for future interactions, and how their effort can be replicated by others. The session will briefly describe NSF's RET program which provided teacher support for three of the four projects. The session will then be opened for discussion; the audience will be encouraged to ask questions and contribute additional ideas for the inclusion of computational thinking in high school courses.

Recently, through the support from the Obama administration, the traditional STEM curricula (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) in high schools are being updated with integrated, applied STEM courses (e.g., technology and engineering) in order to enhance the “real world” applicability of scientific fields and ultimately to strengthen the link between what students learn in high school and college major choice. Using longitudinal survey and transcript data, this study examines whether taking these applied STEM courses in high school can predict higher odds of declaring a STEM major in college. The findings reveal that taking applied STEM courses in high school is associated with a higher probability of declaring a STEM college major for four-year students. Moreover, applied STEM course-taking is highly predictive of declaring an applied STEM major. Implications are discussed.

This study investigated cultural dimensions of career decision‐making difficulties using the Career Decision‐Making Difficulties Questionnaire. Career decision‐making difficulties were compared among White, African, Hispanic, and Asian American high school and university students at U.S. schools. Results indicated Asian American students perceived significantly more difficulties in career decision making than other groups, whereas White American students perceived the fewest difficulties. Asian American students reported more difficulties than White and Hispanic American students before the process and more difficulties than White and African American students during the process. Findings are discussed based on perspectives of cultural differences.

Trust in American institutions varies widely among adults from different racial-ethnic backgrounds. For example, 43% of Whites reported low levels of trust in the police compared to 70% of African Americans. This brief describes findings from a study that demonstrates the developmental psychological processes for the emergence of racial and ethnic gaps in institutional trust during adolescence as well as the ways these gaps affect long-term developmental outcomes. The authors show that these gaps and their consequences are not inevitable. A key developmental challenge for adolescents in the contemporary U.S. is learning to assess the trustworthiness of an institution, such as a school, and to make judgments about whether to comply with its rules and policies. African American and Latino youth make these assessments in a context in which they are disproportionately subjected to mistreatment by authorities compared to White youth. This mistreatment takes the form of low expectations from teachers, disparities in disciplinary action, and suspensions for minor misbehavior. When racial and ethnic minority youth experience and perceive biased mistreatment, they may generalize from specific interactions within the school environment to a mental representation that the institution is biased against them. As a consequence, youth may then be less likely to comply with school policies, which in turn leads to a self-reinforcing cycle of punishment by authorities and further loss of trust by minority students. Students who have lost trust are deprived of the benefits of engaging with an institution. In schools, these benefits include forming positive relationships with teachers and other mentors and accessing resources and opportunities for advancement. But trust can be improved through timely interventions, such as those that provide “wise feedback.” These strategies communicate to students that they will be respected as valuable individuals rather than treated or judged through the prism of a negative stereotype. These signals, offered during critical periods of trust formation, have the opportunity to create positive consequences that can lead to a virtuous cycle with positive outcomes. The authors use data from an eight-year longitudinal study that tracked African American and White students across two cohorts from sixth grade until one year after high school (Study 1). They test whether disciplinary incidents in school, and the sense of injustice they engender, predict a loss of institutional trust among African American youth as well as a greater awareness of procedural injustice. They focus on “judgment call” incidents such as excessive noise or talking out of turn. The authors chose this approach because previous research has demonstrated that no racial-ethnic disparities exist in discipline for objective infractions—such as bringing a weapon to school—but African American students are much more likely than White students to be disciplined for subjective infractions such as disobedience and loitering. The authors then test whether trust among middle schoolers predicts their discipline incidents in eighth grade and their eventual enrollment in a four-year college in the year after high school. Next, the authors examine the effects of a trust-restoring “wise feedback” intervention in the seventh grade—in the form of a teacher’s handwritten note on an essay that communicated respect and trust—on the number of eighth grade discipline incidents and on the students’ on-time enrollment at a four-year college. Finally, they analyze data from a one-year, cohort-sequential study of Latino and White middle school students (Study 2).

Previous articleNext article No AccessEducational WritingsConversation as a Pattern for Oral Communication Speech: A High School Course. Lew Sarett , William Trufant Foster , James H. McBurney Theodore L. HarrisTheodore L. Harris Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 52, Number 1Jan., 1944 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/441000 Views: 2Total views on this site Journal History This article was published in The School Review (1893-1979), which is continued by the American Journal of Education (1979-present). PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.