Attempts to resolve the leadership theory controversy between situationalism and the one-best-way approach. Indicates the validity of the latter and the lack of predictive value of the former. Results indicated administrators chose the 9,9 alternative and rejected situationally prescribed answers, reflecting a management by principles (behavioral…

Scores on Kaufman's (1977) McCarthy short form and the McCarthy Screening Test (1978) were obtained for first graders (N=53). As follow-up nine months later, the Metropolitan Achievement Test was administered. Results showed Kaufman's short form scores usually indicated a smaller number of false negatives than did McCarthy Screening Test scores.…

The study evaluated two kindergarten predictive instruments, the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests: Readiness Skills and the Teacher Estimate of Kindergarten Pupils' Abilities, by following the same 107 kindergartners over 1, 2, 3, and 4 years using multiple regression analysis. (Author/SBH)

Teachers' ratings, especially the peer relations measure, far surpassed other data sources in predicting general adult mental status. Mothers and sons closely agree on sons' adult behavior. One teacher-rated item, "fails to get along with other children," was closely associated with adult behaviors. (Author/CP)

When a number of school readiness tests were used with a group of 322 kindergarten children to predict end of first-grade Metropolitan Achievement Test scores, no evidence of racial bias and only minimal effects of sex bias were found in the predictions based on analysis of variance. (CTM)

Later scholastic success is most highly related to early measures of achievement, affective status, and underperformance; affective status significantly predicts later social adjustment. Thus, neither poverty nor low achievement, both currently favored as Title I allocation criteria, should be used as sole indicators of need. (CP)

The connection between attitudes toward higher education and course evaluation follows from theories of central directive states and communicative balance. Course evaluation is related to: (1) students' and instructors' own and perceived attitudes toward higher education and college teaching, and (2) congruence between these attitudes. (Author/CP)

A simulated Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) was administered to 39 premedical students two weeks prior to the new MCAT. High correlations between simulated and active test scores were obtained in the biology, chemistry, physics, science problems, reading, and quantitative areas. (MH)

Proposes a dynamical systems approach to parsing in which syntactic hypotheses are associated with attractors in a metric space. The experiments discussed documented various contingent frequency effects that cut across traditional linguistic grains, each of which was predicted by the dynamical systems model. (47 references) (Author/CK)

Investigates reliability of two approaches for estimating text difficulty at the first-grade level: the Scale for Text Accessibility and Support and the Fountas/Pinnell system. Supports the predictive validity of the two rating scales with performance data. Suggests potential benchmarks for first-grade performance: 95% accuracy; 80 words per…

A new measure of academic performance was developed through a new application of item response theory (IRT). This new criterion, an IRT-based grade point average (GPA), was used to determine the predictive validity of certain preadmissions measures for 1,564 students admitted to Stanford University in 1982. (SLD)

Identifies predictors of symptomatic distress in emergency services personnel exposed to traumatic critical instances. Evaluated predictors included exposure, social support, and psychological traits. Replicated analyses showed that levels of symptomatic distress were positively related to the degree of exposure to the critical incident. Level of…

This study at 21 colleges found that having entering freshmen write a short holistically scored essay added nothing to the prediction of freshman grade point average compared to predictions made from high school grade point average, Scholastic Aptitude Test scores, and a multiple-choice test of writing-related skills. (Author/DB)

Illustrates some applications of elementary probability and statistics to epidemiology, the branch of medical science that attempts to discover associations between events, patterns, and the cause of disease in human populations. Uses real-life examples involving cancer's link to smoking and the AIDS virus. (MDH)

A model for predicting organized youth sport participation readiness has four predictive components: sport-related fundamental motor skill development; sport-specific knowledge; motivation; and socialization. Physical maturation is also important. The model emphasizes the importance of preparing children for successful participation through…