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Incentives in this study were identified as the consequences of behavior which act to guide the future form and frequency of that behavior. This would include factors such as money, security, knowledge of personal success, peer or authority figure approval, and opportunity to engage in desirable activities. The study was designed to test over an eight-week instructional period the combined effects of three incentive models. The subject pool consisted of first, second, and third grade students from four of the eight elementary schools in San Jose, California district. The major purposes of this pilot study were to formulate the process of implementation of an incentives program and the methodology which would underlie subsequent field studies of incentive models. The statistical findings are generally supportive of the initial research hypothesis of the effectiveness of objective-based incentive techniques in promoting student learning in reading and mathematics at the primary level. This pilot study was funded by a Title III grant. (BW)

In 1971, the Wethersfield, Connecticut School Department received a U.S. Office of Education grant to initiate a study testing some of the incentive models proposed by Jung and his colleagues. The goal of this project was to improve students' initial mastery of reading skill objectives by a program of assigning appropriate objectives to each student, testing mastery of assigned objectives through criterion-referenced tests, and finally awarding incentives to target groups based on students' mastery of assigned objectives. In addition, the project has the goal of implementing and evaluating the impact of three incentives. Four experimental groups were devised: Student, Parent, Parent-Student, and Control (no treatment). In the Student Incentive Treatment, students received instruction, Regional Center Materials, and the 1972 10X Catalog of toys, books, or records, and, ultimately, a class field trip. Incentives in the Parent Incentive Treatment included parents praising student success as an incentive with the parents receiving as an incentive $200 if 80 percent of the children in the class achieved 80 percent of their assigned objectives with 80 percent accuracy. The Parent-Student Treatment combined the incentives of the first two groups. (The document contains information on the analysis of the reading achievement outcomes and classroom observation data, supportive tables, and a discussion of the results.) (For related document, see ED 062 668.) (JA)

In this paper the National Assessment of citizenship's objectives, procedures, exercises, and findings are considered as a source of implications for further research in the area of social studies. First, the methodology of National Assessment can be used as a model for developing objectives, and for devising exercises to measure attainment of social studies objectives. Social studies curricula now depend highly upon standardized tests which compare each student with the average performance of all students, emphasize the average range, and require each respondent to answer all items. In contrast, National Assessment instruments are criterion-referenced, measuring the performance of groups of students, are geared to the ability of the high, average, and low student, and employ a sampling matrix. Secondly, the materials and exercises are available to researchers and have application to other areas in the social studies. Lastly, National Assessment data at their disposal, social studies researchers can interpret, apply and extend the findings in numerous ways. (SJM) Aspect of National Assessment (NAEP) dealt with in this document: Procedures (Utilization).