Richard T. Lapan

Assessing the Impact of Standards-Based Middle Grades Mathematics Curriculum Materials on Student Achievement

This study compared the mathematics achievement of eighth graders in the first three school districts in Missouri to adopt NSF-funded Standards-based middle grades mathematics curriculum materials (MATH Thematics or Connected Mathematics Project) with students who had similar prior mathematics achievement and family income levels from other districts. Achievement was measured using the mathematics portion of the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) administered to all 8th graders in the state annually beginning in the spring of 1997. Significant differences in achievement were identified between students using Standards-based curriculum materials for at least 2 years and students from comparison districts using other curriculum materials. All of the significant differences reflected higher achievement of students using Standards-based materials. Students in each of the three districts using Standards-based materials scored higher in two content areas (data analysis and algebra), and these differences were significant.

Assessing Gender-Based Circumscription of Occupational Aspirations

The circumscription and compromise theory of vocational aspirations draws attention to the possibility that many adolescents may unnecessarily limit their vocational options. This article describes key elements of the theory, particularly its emphasis on childrens perceptions of occupational sextype, and the changes the theory requires in how to conceptualize and assess vocational aspirations. It also describes a theory based Mapping Vocational Challenges1 (MVC; Lapan, Loehr-Lapan, & Tupper, 1995) activity that helps adolescents map and discuss the beliefs and background factors that can lead them to rule out careers they might actually find interesting and perform well.

Seventh Graders' Vocational Interest and Efficacy Expectation Patterns.

Journal of Career Development, Vol. 26(3), Sprireg 2000 Currently, a window of opportunity exists to greatly expand career counseling services for kindergarten through twelfth grade students. Enhanced career development activities for all students are presently mandated by federal legislation (School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994), supported by widespread public opinion (Brown, Minor, & Jepsen, 1992), and advocated by the school counselor profession (American School Counseling Association, 1985). Unfortunately, as Bloch (1996) pointed out, in many states school administrators and counselors have limited awareness of and commitment to workforce

The Measurement of Career Interests among At-Risk Inner-City and Middle-Class Suburban Adolescents.

This article examines the factor structure and underlying dimensions of Hollands occupational themes with inner-city, at-risk middle school adolescents and middle-class, suburban middle school adolescents. Both groups constructed the occupational world across the Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, and Social Holland themes similarly. However, there were differences in their construals of the relationships between occupations in the Enterprising and Social Themes. Subsequent means analyses indicated significant ethnic differences in medical science careers and within-group ethnic differences in working with hands, working outdoors, professional and fashion arts, social service, and medical service careers.

Native American Adolescent Career Development

Within the framework of Social Cognitive Career (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994, 2000), this study examined the associations among career interests, career efficacy expectations, gender, and perceived parent support among Native American and Caucasian middle school adolescents. Consistent with previous research, results indicated that Native American young people had greater interests in Realistic and Conventional occupations, and in occupations that typically require a high-school diploma, a trade school certificate, or 2 years of post high-school education. However, contrary to previous findings, they had as great a range of interests in and self-efficacy expectations for Investigative, Artistic, Social, and Enterprising occupations as Caucasian adolescents, and similarly high levels of interests, efficacy, and perceived parent support for careers typically requiring 4 or more years of post-high school education.

The Selective Attention Strategy and Prose Learning

For more than a century, educators and psychologists have sought to understand how readers learn and recall text information. Early models of the learning process relied on almost mechanical explanations for how prose material was learned and recalled. For example, Frase (1969) described ways in which inserted questions might “shape” reading behaviors to promote greater learning. Thus, the reader was seen as passive and without any real input into the learning process. More recently, cognitive psychologists such as Anderson (1970), Brown (1980), and Flavell (1979) have proposed that readers are really active, strategic participants in the learning situation. This recent approach has encouraged prose learning researchers to investigate the types of strategies that learners employ in different contexts, particularly as they attempt to learn and recall information from long, expository texts.

The Implementation and Evaluation of Comprehensive School Guidance Programs in the United States: Progress and Prospects

The evolution of guidance in the schools of the United States from a position to a service to a program is described. Then the prevailing structure for guidance, the comprehensive guidance program is presented. This section of the article provides a brief overview of the basic elements of the program. Finally, the article closes with discussion of guidance program evaluation as well as presents the results of several studies that offer evidence of the impact of guidance programs.