Teachers' predictions of pupil success in elementary school were compared to pupil performance in terms of quartile placement on national test norms. Results indicated that teachers were able to predict reading achievement but had less predictive ability in other areas. (JKS)

Using the empirically based evidence that has resulted from the previous five Talent Searches of the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth, the article develops the rationale and success behind the talent-search concept as a useful strategy for identifying the intellectually gifted. (Author)

Reports on an experiment, conducted on 63 students of English, which sought to determine whether certain students within heterogeneous population groups can be expected to make significantly more rapid gains than others, and whether scores on a standardized proficiency test can identify students who will make greater or lesser gains. (Author/AM)

Asserts that the continuing failure to consider women has critically weakened contemporary criminal deviance theory, examines the major paradigms in criminal deviance, argues that the inclusion of sex as a variable has more or less disastrous consequences for those paradigms, and argues that the primary purpose of labeling theory is to detect…

Links the theory of washback with the broader concept of impact in educational measurement and to the recent debate on construct validity associated with Messick. Notes that for many years it was asserted that language tests negatively impacted teaching and learning, an impact known as washback. (25 references) (Author/CK)

The Problem Recognition Questionnaire (PRQ), administered to 234 adolescents undergoing chemical dependency treatment, was examined with respect to its reliability, factor structure, and predictive validity. Results indicate that the PRQ (a measure of adolescent motivation to change substance-use behaviors) has acceptable reliability and potential…

The validity of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) in predicting mechanical job performance was studied with 891 automotive and 522 helicopter mechanics. The mechanical maintenance component of the ASVAB predicted hands-on performance, job knowledge, and training grades quite well, but experience was more predictive of…

Compares the predictive validity of four indices of electoral conflict, three of which are based on the dissatisfaction theory of democracy. Uses a longitudinal study conducted in Washington. Results indicate that none of the formulas are predictors of school board incumbent defeat. (FMW)

A study was designed to predict student performance in the introductory accounting course, specifically the performance of nontraditional students. A predictive instrument to measure mathematical abilities was employed; outcomes were compared to individuals' final course grade. Results indicate that a brief math skills test can predict performance…

A study evaluated the use of the Kolb Learning Styles Inventory as a predictor of academic potential, for use in recruitment of optometry students. Although distinctive learning preferences were observed in low- and high-achieving students, correlations were not strong enough for predictive use. (Author/MSE)

Reviews research concerning relationship of nonverbal ability measures recommended for hearing impaired students and learning potential. Reviews both earlier studies indicating that nonverbal measures could be used to predict academic achievement and more recent studies urging caution or suggest questionable predictability when interpreting data.…

Asked 391 students to provide 3 types of mathematics self-efficacy judgments. Students' reported confidence to answer the problems they were later asked to solve proved a more powerful predictor of that performance than either their confidence to perform math-related tasks or to succeed in math-related courses. (RJM)

Results of completion of 4 instruments (Myers-Briggs Type Inventory, Strong Interest Inventory, Hermann Brain Dominance Inventory, and Learning Styles Inventory) by 75 accounting, business administration, and public administration graduate students suggest that the Hermann (and to some extent the Strong) inventory has potential value for…

Matching almost 47,000 men and women on type of math course taken and grade received, women scored about 33 points lower on the Scholastic Aptitude Test-Mathematics than men who had taken the same course and received the same grade. Sex differences call into question the validity of the SAT as a predictor of college math performance. (SK)

New methods for representing the structural properties of domain-specific knowledge were studied. Network representations of data from 40 college students' ratings of the relatedness of domain concepts were derived using the Pathfinder scaling algorithm, and similarity between students' and instructor's networks was then assessed using a…