This study of 174 children meeting criteria for learning disabilities revealed that the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-III) factors accounted for a large portion of the achievement variance during hierarchical regression analyses. Proposes that the practitioner should refrain from focusing on global scores and…

A study investigated whether predictions of reading achievement could be improved by studying the relative contributions of alphabetic knowledge and invented spelling over time. Subjects, 38 upper middle-class children enrolled at an elementary school in the Midwest, were administered an alphabetic knowledge task (measuring letter names and letter…

Student background factors and college entry factors which might predict performance on the Florida Teacher Certification Examination (FTCE) were examined. The predictor variables, lower- and upper-level grade point average (GPA), American College Testing (ACT)-English, ACT-Math, ACT-Social Science, ACT-Natural Science, and ACT-Composite, were…

The relations between general and specific trait anxiety tests and fear measures in three actual situations were investigated. The results indicate that the specific tests were clearly superior to the general ones in predicting fear of snakes but only slightly superior in predicting fear of heights and darkness. (Author)

This paper discusses the principles underlying discriminant analysis and constructs a simulated data set to illustrate its methods. Discriminant analysis is a multivariate technique for identifying the best combination of variables to maximally discriminate between groups. Discriminant functions are established on existing groups and used to…

An empirical method called Predicted Error Sum of Squares (PRESS) is advanced and studied. This method is used to examine the cross-validated prediction accuracies of some popular algorithms for weighted predictor variables. The weighting methods that were considered were ordinary least squares, ridge regression, regression on principal…

Actual data sets were used to illustrate how substantially different conclusions and implications can be drawn from alternate multiple regressions predicting academic achievement from the same set of variables measuring student background. Variables assessing students' socioeconomic status and geographic mobility, used to predict reading and math…

A study examined the feasibility of using the Comprehensive Nursing Achievement Test as a predictor of nursing students' eventual success on the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN). The predictive validity of other factors, such as age, college entrance test scores, and grades in second-year nursing courses, was also examined.…

This overview of both quantitative and qualitative methods of educational forecasting is introduced by a discussion of a general typology of forecasting methods. In each of the following sections, discussion follows the same general format: a number of basic approaches are identified (e.g. extrapolation, correlation, systems modelling), and each…

Based on the argument that traditional college admissions standards comprise elements that are invalid predictors of significant contributions to society, the author discusses selected results of a study which measured college apllicants' non-academic activities and productive thinking capacity as possible predictors of success in college.…

A four-variable equation to predict administrative effectiveness of academic deans was derived from 17 variables by discriminant analysis. The study objective was to validate four indicators of administrator effectiveness. If the four variables were found to discriminate between effective and ineffective deans, search-screening committees could…

A functional prediction scheme was sought for use in kindergarten which would have good predictive power for future reading achievement and be easy and quick to administer and score, inexpensive, and conducive to classroom use. A group of 21 kindergarten children was tested for reading readiness, intelligence, and psycholinguistic ability. Their…

A study was conducted to develop an instrument which would require a relatively short time to complete and would predict an adult's probable performance on a five-part General Educational Development (GED) test. It was believed that the cloze procedure (a measure of reading comprehension in which every fifth word is deleted from a reading passage…

A primary objective of this research was the development of predictors of academic performance and satisfaction for aeronautical engineering students. Three basic types of data used to develop predictors were biographical (historical), academic aptitude (graduate record exam), and individual interests (Strong Vocational Interest Blank) data.…