Characteristics and attendance patterns of persisters and dropouts from college and vocational/technical schools were studied, and a model of the persistence process was tested using data from the National Longitudinal Study (NLS), which surveyed high school seniors in 1972, with followup surveys in 1973 and 1974. Student persistence was defined…

The logic of using a gain score approach versus longitudinal causal models is studied in this secondary analysis of a complex data base. The gain score model used by the Federal Reserve Bank and the School District of Philadelphia in their "What Works in Reading?" study is successively refined using the LISREL structural equation…

Data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS) including the 1976 follow-up were used to examine the effects of interrupting or delaying school attendance on the eventual educational attainment of white male students. Background variables include socioeconomic and other family characteristics. Achievement test…

Describes a study that examined the effect of computer programing experience on the mathematical problem solving achievement of high school students. The variables studied are discussed, including gender, ability, socioeconomic status, prior math experience, and access to a home computer, and a path analysis model is explained. (34 references)…

Applies a path model previously used for Anglo youth to the relationships among family strengths, religious identification, school adjustment, family sanctions against drug use, and peer relationships and youth drug use for 477 American Indian high school juniors and seniors. Discusses differences in findings from those for Anglo youth. (SLD)

A model of influences affecting early career teachers' job satisfaction was developed and tested. The path model, tested with 250 Black and 262 White teachers, indicated that influences leading to satisfaction differ across racial groups; and sexual differences should be considered in teacher induction and training. (TJH)

A need to provide more data about the impact of schools on children in terms of manipulable variables prompted an examination of the relationship between school organization and student aspirations for further education. A causal model is examined which would enable investigation of the mechanism by which school contexts could alter aspiration.…

Proposes social structural view of poverty rates as a function of local opportunity instead of individual-level focus on who is poor. Defines poverty rates as a function of industrial structure and relative power of labor in a locality. Confirms theoretical model with data from 46 South Carolina counties. (LFL)

An assessment of a four-stage conceptual model reveals that critical thinking has indirect positive effects on political participation through its direct effects on personal control, political efficacy, and democratic attitudes. The model establishes causal relationships among selected personality variables (self-esteem, personal control, and…

A model of student attrition was synthesized from psychological, sociological, and educational sources, and contains six sets of variables: background, organizational, personal, environmental, attitudinal, and intent to leave. The model was tested with 1,909 full-time and unmarried university freshmen at a major midwestern university. The sample…

A theoretical model based on path analytic logic was used to examine the relative influences of social origin and significant other influences on marital, fertility, and educational plans. Parents' education and the major family income-earner's occupation were used as measures of social origin; perceived encouragement by parents, teachers,…

Path analysis examines an analytical model of decision making by lending officers of 211 Texas banks when recommending agricultural technology to farmer-clients. Model analyzes effects of loan officers' ascribed/achieved personal characteristics and perceptions of organizational constraints during three stages of decision process: using…

The purpose of this study is to investigate science achievement of Australian students and how this achievement can vary from school to school. The proposition that gender and socioeconomic inequities in Australia are the result of school systems designed to reproduce an unequal social order is be examined with reference both to current…

Five statistical techniques were used to analyze the data collected in a previous article (TM 511 223) on student achievement, attention, and motivation in secondary school mathematics and science: ordinary least squares regression, canonical correlation, factorial modeling, partial least squares path analysis, and linear structural relations…

To track student progress and develop a model of the total academic process at Prince George's Community College (PGCC), the Office of Institutional Research and Analysis acquired 5 years of background, behavioral, and outcome data for a cohort of first-time students entering the college. The academic process was broken down into three divisions:…