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Understanding students' perceptions is critical to delivering consistent quality service at an American-style higher education institute. This paper exclusively describes an exploratory study that investigates Nigerian students' perceptions of American expatriate and Nigerian teaching faculty at an American style education initiative in Nigeria based on clearly defined faculty evaluation results. These perceptions are specific to three areas across all disciplines and schools: course, instructor and student. By evaluating these perceptions, it is anticipated that our analysis will create a starting point for examining how an American style education can be maintained and supported in a Nigerian education system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on tie-breakings regarded by school districts in the U.S. These are the single tie-breaking (STB) and multiple tie-braking rules (MTB) wherein schools choose a random order over students. It also notes the significant role of balance in supply and demand in comparing the regulations.

This paper compares and contrasts attitudes toward relationship violence held by college students in the US and the UK. It examines whether students view male and female victimization and perpetration differently, whether they attribute blame differently based on the gender of the victim, and whether a varieity of other attitudinal variables impact upon these belief systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines how new immigrant and American-born minority students in one city high school negotiate their commitment to education in a disturbed school environment. The research was conducted in an inner-city school located in New York City. Students' behaviors reflect a broader social reality of their experiences in school than the theories of education would suggest. The concept of street ethos addresses the issues of misbehavior associated with low academic performance without recourse to resistance as a cultural trait of students in inner city schools. Resistance refers to cultural models that define student misbehavior or conflict as an indicator that a student has rejected the norms and values associated with formal education.

The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Social Norms Approach (SNA) both stress the important influence that normative perceptions have on behavioral intentions and behavior. These 2 approaches were used to examine the behavioral intention to limit drinking to 0 to 4 drinks. Further, this study examined whether perception of subjective norms, university and U.S. level descriptive norms, and university and U.S. level injunctive norms represented separate dimensions for this behavioral intention. A representative sample of 1110 college students completed a web-based survey. The results confirmed that the 5 types of norms were all unique constructs. This study also found that individuals' intentions to limit their alcohol consumption to 0 to 4 drinks were predicted by positive attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norms. Subjective norms also moderated the relationship between attitudes and behavioral intention. University descriptive norms also served as a moderator. This study has important implications for future normative interventions. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By analyzing the Parent and Family Involvement in Education Survey of the National Household Education Surveys Program (PFI-NHES:2007), this study addresses what factors affect parental choice and whether school choice increases parents' school satisfaction. This study reveals that the nature of school choice is heavily dependent on a variety of characteristics, including demographic characteristics and socioeconomic background. Black and Hispanic students are more likely to choose schools than White students. As parental education level becomes higher, parents are more likely to choose schools. However, as household income level becomes higher, parents are less likely to choose schools for their kids. Parents in large cities are most likely to choose schools for their kids. Choice parents are more than twice likely to be satisfied with school than nonchoice parents. Parents with female students are more likely to be satisfied with schools than parents with male students. Black parents are least likely to be satisfied with schools. Student academic achievement has a positive impact on parental satisfaction with schools. While parental education level has a slightly positive effect on parental satisfaction, household income level has a slightly negative impact on school satisfaction. How well schools inform parents greatly affect parental satisfaction. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on possible shortcomings in business education in the U.S. The author focuses on problems associated with the business communication aspect of the business curriculum. It is suggested that businessmen often lack oral and written communications skills. The author recommends teaching methods that may be used to improve upon students' communication skills. It is further suggested that business teachers use real life scenarios to improve students' problem solving skills. The orientation of the U.S. educational system is also discussed.

Past research linking ethnic culture to the Black-White achievement gap has focused primarily on minority ethnic culture and specific cultural phenomena, namely school resistance and the "burden of acting white". This study goes beyond oppositional culture to examine how ethnic culture impacts achievement among Black and White students using multidimensional racial identity measures as a proxy for ethnic culture. Through the comparison of competing models, it explores the relative importance of mechanisms of self selection, where student culture influences educational affect, and teacher selection, where student culture influences teachers' regard for them. Using data from the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study (MADICS), the measurement of racial identity was modeled in exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and incorporated into structural equation models to test competing theories separately by race. For both Black and White students, teacher selection emerged as the key mechanism through which racial identity impacted achievement. Rather than acting through educational attitudes, racial identity influenced teachers' regard for their students, which in turn influenced student achievement. These findings suggest that greater attention should be given to the roles of teachers and school culture in contributing to racial inequalities in education and lend support to recent critiques arguing that cultural explanations of educational inequality have been overly fixated on the oppositional culture model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines differences between African American and White high school students in the realization of academic potential. Using the nationally representative Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS), I examine differences in the extent to which students' senior-year grades fall short of or exceed the grades predicted by their earlier achievement test scores. The results show a substantial stock of unrealized academic potential among African American students. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) is used to test hypotheses about the ability of student and school characteristics to account for the racial difference in unrealized academic potential. Results show that at the student level, the biggest reason African American students do not fulfill their academic potential is that teachers perceive African American students as exerting less classroom effort than Whites, holding constant several self-reported student attitudes and behaviors. At the school level, larger racial gaps in fulfillment of academic potential exist in segregated schools, with either very low percentages of students of color or very low percentages of White students. Among integrated high schools, African American students fall shortest of reaching their academic potential in schools with strict disciplinary climates. Theoretical and policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there has been considerable improvement in the overall treatment of rape victims, services such as those provided by rape crisis centers remain underutilized in the United States, where rates of rape are still among the highest in the world. This analysis begins to look for an explanation by exploring students' conceptualizations of rape crisis centers. It is part of an ongoing project that searches for a possible link between attitudes and beliefs about rape and willingness to use community resources for victims. Since rape is quite prevalent among college age students, their use of services is paramount. This utilization of services will also direct their future actions, including that of personal, political, or financial support of such services. In the spring of 2007, an open-ended questionnaire was administered to approximately 200 students in introductory level sociology courses at a medium sized university in the Southeast. Respondents were asked to record their perceptions and understanding of a "Sexual Assault/Rape Crisis Center." Preliminary analyses indicate that many of the respondents are not aware of such centers at school and in the local community, especially males. Those who indicated some awareness often identified the centers as places to go for relief, someone to talk to, and assistance in seeking justice. Perhaps one reason for the underutilization of rape crisis services is a lack of awareness of the availability and breadth of such services. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a study of U.S. and Russian students, the students' affective reactions to payment allocations by equity, equality, and choice differed little between countries. However, when allocating bonuses under scenarios, Russian students heavily weighted a person's need, while U.S. students explicitly denied need as a basis for allocations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]