This study of 118 students who placed into basic skills sections of College English suggests that students' self-beliefs may be a particularly important predictor of success in weak writers in first-semester courses. Two types of writing self-efficacy scales--a writing tasks/skills scale and an approach-to-writing scale--were developed to follow…

Relationships among locus of control, academic program, and sex of 267 ninth-graders were studied. As hypothesized, students in the advanced level program were more internally controlled than were general or basic level students. Although locus of control was related to academic level, its relationship to gender was not consistent. (SLD)

The relative influence of cooperative-competitive social orientation on school achievement for Anglo-American and Mexican-American children was assessed. The importance of competitiveness for Anglo-American children and the moderate relationship of other personality variables to achievement in both groups is shown. (Author/CM)

School effectiveness research has fueled debate on the importance of a press for academic excellence versus communal values. Research on parenting styles offers a theoretical framework that may resolve the debate. We hypothesized that dimensions of parenting styles--demandingness (academic press) and responsiveness (communal values)--predict…