Multiple samples of university students (N = 1,537) completed the Almost Perfect Scale-Revised (APS-R; R. B. Slaney, M. Mobley, J. Trippi, J. Ashby, & D. G. Johnson, 1996). Cluster analyses, cross-validated discriminant function analyses, and receiver operating characteristic curves for sensitivity and specificity of APS-R scores were used to…

This research examined the effect of tutoring on student success at an open enrollment community college, controlling for gender, age, race/ethnicity, highest level of education, and reading, writing and mathematics competency. Student success was defined three ways: term grade point average (GPA), success in courses, and persistence from the fall…

This article examines the nature of confidence in relation to abilities, personality, and metacognition. Confidence scores were collected during the administration of Reading and Listening sections of the Test of English as a Foreign Language Internet-Based Test (TOEFL iBT) to 824 native speakers of English. Those confidence scores were correlated…

Critical thinking has been conceptualized as a two-factor system in which critical thinking ability and critical thinking disposition combine to determine actual thinking performance. The present study used confirmatory factor analysis to investigate such a two-factor model empirically. One hundred ninety-eight Purdue University undergraduates…

A study was done at Panhandle State University (Oklahoma) examining whether high school grade point averages or ACT (American College Testing) scores provided a better predictor of freshman academic success. Study procedures included a review of the literature, meetings with the academic vice president and five deans, as well as examination of…

Promoting Achievement in School through Sports (PASS) is an academic high school curriculum developed by the American Sports Institute. It is a daily, year-long, credit-bearing, physical education elective for students who love sports but are not performing up to their academic potential. PASS is based on the concept that the principles and skills…

This study examined whether American College Testing (ACT) scores are a reliable predictor of college success using data on Chicago State University (CSU) graduates. The study used data on all undergraduates who had successfully completed a degree program and graduated in one of nine successive terms between Fall 1990 and Fall 1993 and also had an…

During the past 15 years, considerable attention has been given to a conspicuous longitudinal change in grading patterns in higher education. Commonly referred to as "grade inflation," the phenomenon has been perceived by some as seriously weakening the meaning of grades but by others as reflecting a positive tendency for students to…

Reports on increasing grade inflation in higher education in the United States and offers suggestions for curbing the phenomenon. (CP)

This study examined the relationship between the ability to think critically and the academic performance of undergraduate students. Male (N=107) and female (N=130) undergraduates completed a consent form, demographic sheet, and the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA), which consists of five subtests (Inference, Recognition of…

This study was conducted to determine the accuracy of the commonly cited claims that teacher certification graduates are inferior to noncertification graduates in terms of entrance and exit criteria. Popular literature and conventional wisdom have apparently influenced state legislatures to enact legislation which places limits on the professional…

The Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) Models, often referred to as Box-Jenkins models, are regression methods for analyzing sequential dependent observations with large amounts of data. The Box-Jenkins approach, a three-stage procedure consisting of identification, estimation and diagnosis, was used to select the most appropriate…

Previous studies have shown that students who intend to major in education have low SAT and ACT scores. Further, among those students who intended to major, those who do major have even lower average scores. This study also shows that those students who intend to major in education have lower average high school and college grade point averages.…

Piaget has suggested formal operations, as measured by his tasks, may be related specifically to physics-type problem solving and that other hypothetico-deductive thinking processes develop in adults in other specializations. The present follow-up study examined the relationship between formal versus concrete operational thinking as measured by…