Knowing relevant information about students entering the higher education (HE) system is becoming increasingly important, thus enabling higher education institutions (HEIs) to design effective studentcentred support programmes. Therefore, HEIs should ascertain all relevant information about their students before the commencement of the academic…

Investigations of differential item functioning (DIF) have been conducted mostly on ability tests and have found little evidence of easily interpretable differences across various demographic subgroups. In this study, we examined the degree to which DIF in biographical data items referencing academically relevant background, experiences, and…

A former whites-only South African university's journalism department employs a dual-medium language policy in which Afrikaans and English alternate in classrooms, and students may use either. Admissions processes include a test of linguistic ability (general/cultural knowledge and writing skills). Citing Bourdieu, this article disputes the…

The purpose of this research was to determine whether particular biographic and academic characteristics would predict whether an applicant would matriculate into and successfully complete an online secondary teacher certification program. Results of statistical analyses conducted on 170 applicants over the past three years affirm the importance…

The idea that one's competencies are as important as one's qualifications has gained acceptance in both business and academia. Business organizations have developed sophisticated management systems around employee competence. There are education assessment tools that help ascertain students' competencies. In this study, the authors investigated…

In April 1987, a pilot study was undertaken to develop an instrument designed to assess the effects of life events on undergraduate students' academic performance. Focus was on the design and construction of the instrument--the Life Events and Academic Performance Questionnaire (LEAPQ). Subjects were 75 male and 75 female undergraduates at a large…

Differences between 50 Israeli and 87 American students in grades 9 through 12 were investigated using the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking-Figural Form A. Results showed that Israeli students scored higher than the American students in grades 9, 10 and 12 on fluency and flexibility. Israeli students scored higher on originality only in grade…

This is the eighth annual report of national normative data on characteristics of students entering college as first-time, fulltime freshmen. Data are based on responses from 189,733 freshmen entering 360 institutions to the Student Information Form (SIF), the survey instrument. The SIF is designed to elicit a wide range of biographic and…

This report is Part I of a 3 part project report on THE VALIDATION OF A BIOGRAPHICAL INVENTORY AS A PREDICTOR OF COLLEGE SUCCESS. This part, dealing with the development and validation of a scoring key for the Biographical Inventory, covers the major quantitative analysis of the data. Part II is concerned with sociometric and interview contingency…

The Student Booklet is a companion document to "The Career Data Book: Results from Project TALENT'S Five-year Followup Study" (CE 000 755). The booklet's purpose is to enable the high school student to compare his abilities, achievements, interests, and background with those of other young people who went into various occupations so he…

The major conclusion of this study is that junior college students appear to have goals in attending college that are very similar in distribution to those of students at other types of colleges and universities. (Author)

This initial study phase deals with the accuracy of the information provided by students on the newly revised Student Descriptive Questionnaire (SDQ). The SDQ, an optional part of the College Board's Admissions Testing Program, is intended to supplement the information base to improve the quality of decisions made by college admissions personnel,…

This is an inventory of the background, opinions, beliefs, attitudes and feelings of students about themselves; about social, moral, and religious practices and problems; and about various aspects of their college. The instrument is used to collect information about incoming freshman students at Abilene Christian College and about ways in which…

It has been proposed that the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) increase its efforts to gather and analyze data on student background, teachers, households, and schools. Adoption of this proposal would result in the inclusion in NAEP of additional background variables and subpopulations, to be defined by states. NAEP specification…

The data presented in this report summarize the background characteristics of 234,796 college students who took the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) Aptitude Test during 1975-1976 and who responded to at least one of the thirteen background questions. Response data are presented for the following questions: (1) whether or not GRE tests have been…