The article describes a series of studies that was implemented over a five-year period to validate a teacher selection system which demonstrated important relationships between measured teacher verbal and quantitative ability and quality of classroom instruction. The need to validate personnel interview and essay techniques is discussed.…

A study of the usefulness of traditional admission criteria in predicting student achievement found that standardized secondary school examination scores and branch of study were highly predictive of college cumulative grade point average, and that the scores reflected intellective as well as non-intellective factors pertaining to students'…

Scores on the Holbrook Screening Battery, administered at age four, correctly predicted 89 percent of good readers and 75 percent of poor readers in a sample of 116 eighth graders. Characteristics differentiating good and poor readers included birth history, family history of learning disability, speech delay, and socioeconomic status. (Author/DB)

The relationship of Dental Admission Test (DAT) scales and predental grade point averages with freshman and sophomore dental school performance measures and National Board Dental Examination (NBDE) Part I averages were examined. The results indicated that the DAT scales had limited predictive validity. (Author/MLW)

A teacher's letter to a student explains what his B grade for the course does and does not represent in terms of the student's achievement or success as a human being or in future accomplishments. (MSE)

Two studies investigated the effects of three instructional methods on lower and higher cognitive processes of sixth- and ninth-grade students. Results are discussed. (Author/MT)

Two approaches are used to assess the one-month stability of depression affect in college students: (1) a high retest correlation is demonstrated for a latent depressive affect construct using self-reports from the previous month; and (2) predictive validity of depressive categorization is examined using logistic regression techniques. (Author/LMO)

Used classical conditioning theory of learning to predict attitudes of junior high students toward spending for designer jeans. Found that students were likely to say that in comparison to the nondesigner jeans, they would spend more for the designer jeans, select them more often as gifts, and purchase them more often for themselves. (Author/ABB)

Children (n=36), originally tested for visual novelty preferences at age seven months and intelligence estimates at age three, were tested for intellectual functioning and for visual recognition performance at age five. Results indicate that novelty preferences were more highly related to later intelligence quotients than to later recognition…

This study examined career teachers' allocation of extra work time within a conceptual framework influencing time use. Distinct groups prefering instructional tasks; student, or parent, counseling; or committee activities were identifiable in a prediction model. Teachers selected professional time uses congruent with their perceived skills and…

On the basis of a study involving 40 first-grade students, compares Pascual-Leone's and Keating and Bobbitt's developmental theories of information processing by contrasting their predictions about a classification task. Results falsified Keating and Bobbitt's model. Predictions from Pascual-Leone's theory were almost wholly confirmed. (RH)

A statistical comparison of scores on the previous and redesigned Medical College Admission Tests showed that neither was a powerful predictor of scores on the National Board of Medical Examiners Part III examination, a measure of clinical competence at the first-year resident level. Other subtest results were also found. (MSE)

Proposes criteria for defining and selecting preschool developmental screening instruments and describes the Early Screening Inventory (ESI), a developmental screening instrument designed to satisfy these criteria. Presents results of several studies demonstrating that the ESI predicts school performance with moderate to excellent accuracy through…

Teachers' ratings of children's academic abilities, classroom skills, and personal-social characteristics were highly predictive of subsequent school achievement. Although teachers tended to be more positive toward girls, within each sex ratings were predictive of future performance. Teacher ratings were more predictive of scholastic success than…

The gains in accuracy resulting from applying any of the smoothing methods appear sufficient to justify the suggestion that all expectancy tables used by colleges for admission, guidance, or planning purposes should be smoothed. These methods on the average, reduce the criterion measure (an index of inaccuracy) by 30 percent. (Author/MV)