Pre-enrollment characteristics that distinguish nonpersisting students from students who persist into the second semester of their freshman year were studied at the University of Iowa in 1978. Three sources of information were used to obtain predictor variables: American College Testing (ACT) program test scores, the ACT Student Profile, and high…

Student and test characteristics were examined by multiple regression analysis and discriminant function analysis to explain why 171 political science undergraduates scored differently on essay versus objective final examinations. Student characteristics included: (1) patterns of creative, crystallized, and fluid abilities as measured by the…

The collection and analysis of data concerning teacher effectiveness will continue to be of very limited use to teachers and administrators until our models of the educational process become much more sophisticated. Teacher performance indicators appear more relevant for judging teacher effectiveness than certification, education, and experience.…

One of the series of occasional papers originating from the Study of Collegiate Compensatory Programs for Minority Group Youth project, this annotated bibliography focuses on the following: civil rights and access to higher education; programs and practices in higher education for the disadvantaged; characteristics of disadvantaged students;…

The major purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between play complexity, occupational preference, and perceived self-competence. A second focus was to examine these variables in terms of age, gender, and socioeconomic status (SES). Two age groups (200 third graders and 206 sixth graders) participated in the initial part of the…

The use of certain variables in predicting the probability of persistence to graduation for students majoring in business or nonbusiness was examined at Western State College of Colorado. The study sample consisted of 131 students from the 1977-78 graduating class, of whom 52 were nonbusiness majors and 79 were business majors. Predictions of…

THE FLANAGAN APTITUDE CLASSIFICATION TEST, THE GORDON OCCUPATIONAL CHECK LIST, THE STANFORD ACHIEVEMENT TEST, THE PRIMARY MENTAL ABILITIES TEST, AND THE GORDON SURVEY OF INTERPERSONAL VALUES WERE ADMINISTERED IN A PILOT STUDY UNDERTAKEN AS PART OF A LARGER STUDY DESIGNED TO DEFINE MORE EFFECTIVE INSTRUMENTS FOR IDENTIFYING VOCATIONALLY TALENTED…

An experiment comparing the pedagogical effectiveness of five different modes of audio narration in motion and still pictures showed only small differences in sixth graders' learning. Ten experimental groups were formed in which the 351 subjects viewed motion pictures and still slides accompanied by supplementary, redundant, directive,…

Reports on a study done at Aberdeen University (England) which assessed the learning styles of first-year medical students. Results indicated that these students scored higher than other students in achievement (including study methods and competitiveness) and prediction for success. Includes the instrument used. (TW)

The performance and the predictors of performance of urban and nonurban students in a University of Missouri-Kansas City B.A.-M.D. program are compared. The results provide some evidence for the assertion that rural students perform well in college because they have the zeal to overcome perceived handicaps. (Author/MLW)

This paper examines the changing demographics of American society and the impact of these changes on higher education. Discussions include a historical background of early American demography, the building and expansion of the population base, and census changes through various generations of the baby boom years and beyond. Next, the report…

The optimal allocation of Air Force talent requires, among other considerations, the measurement of both enlistee aptitudes and job aptitude requirements. Although objective procedures are available to measure aptitudes accurately, the procedure presently employed for establishing relative aptitude requirements is both unsystematic and subject to…

A survey designed to predict freshman attrition was developed and tested at the University of Kansas. The 75-item survey, the Entering Freshman Survey, was administered to a uniform random sample of one-half of the freshmen entering the university in the fall 1979 semester or entering in the summer 1979 term and reenrolling in the fall. Based on…

Describes a study of 38 students at Eastern Oregon State College which identified mathematics proficiency as the key student characteristic leading to successful completion of computer science courses, and developed a model that accounts for 82 percent of the variation in students' final grades in computer courses for use by advisers. (LRW)

To test a facilitative-constraint model, data about marijuana use was collected from 4,859 high school students in 2 rural southern Georgia counties. The model was useful for predicting frequency of use and classifying students as users, experimenters, and nonusers. Access to drugs and identification with drug-oriented groups were strong…