A 12-item survey of English background and proficiency was administered to all Washington State University freshman English students on the first day of class during the fall semester of 1977. A sample of 700 completed questionnaires was selected for analysis. In general, student responses indicated an overall weakness in the teaching of writing…

Six widely used college admissions variables and four course-specific measures (tests of entering mathematical skills and physics knowledge, and indexes of previous study of mathematics and physics) were correlated with final marks for 495 students in an introductory college physics course. The college admissions variables included scores on…

Forty nonclinical psychology graduate students participated in brief small-group interchanges designed as psychotherapy analogues. The interaction was rated by trained judges, and the "clients" in the simulations also rated "therapist" empathy. The most powerful predictor of client-rated empathy was gender, with women receiving higher empathy…

Past research has suggested that supervisors, when evaluating the poor performance of a subordinate, are influenced by the outcome of the performance. Nurses (N=55) in advanced training assumed the role of a supervisor of a nurse described as having performed poorly. Half of the subjects read an incident without an outcome and half read an…

This report of a research project examines the relationship between learning gain and certain noninstructional factors. Specifically, the comprehension, vocabulary, and mathematics gains of Title I students enrolled in a particular elementary school during the 1978-79 school year were correlated with 19 noninstructional variables collected from…

A sample of 188 freshman students was tested for ability in seven areas of reading, prior to the beginning of the academic year; their scores were later related to the cumulative grade point average (CGPA) for their freshman year. Significant correlations were found between CGPA and vocabulary, reflective comprehension, total comprehension, and…

A regression analysis was conducted of factors that help to explain the variance in physician distribution and which identify those factors that influence the maldistribution of physicians. Models were developed for different geographic areas to determine the most appropriate unit of analysis for the Western Missouri Area Health Education Center…

The potential impact over a five-year period of various social security proposals upon independent colleges and universities was examined in a survey of 114 institutions. The survey encompassed only administrative, faculty, and staff salaries, and excluded nonprofessional salaries and wages. Data concerning the average increases of employer costs…

This report describes the conceptual framework of a study examining the feasibility of developing, on a nationwide basis, a system of statistical indicators of educational knowledge outputs, dissemination structures, and knowledge utilization settings and outcomes, along with their contextual indicators. Using the notion of social indicators to…

A study was conducted to determine the extent to which certain generalizations concerning vocational students as a whole apply to women vocational students. It compared women vocational students with those in other curricula (academic, general, and commercial) with respect to their future plans, aspirations, occupational status, and socioeconomic…

The Brain Wave Analyzer (BWA Ertl 02) was used to measure the brain potentials of 110 public school children. Resulting scores were correlated with concurrent measures of school achievement. Results indicate that certain brain wave scores have relatively low correlations with school achievement compared to traditional intelligence measures but may…

This report is one of three volumes that describe the second phase of a study that examined the implementation of four federal change agent programs related to education. Phase 2 of the study focused on what happens to local projects in the two largest change agent programs--ESEA Title III and ESEA Title VII--when federal funding stops. This…

A study of women's information-seeking behavior with regard to the purchase of cosmetics was conducted to determine the effects on their behavior of six individual variables (ambiguity about cosmetic products, price consciousness, income, amount of money spent on cosmetics, age, and education) and six social variables (perceived social utility of…

This study attempted to clarify the interplay of self/social interest and education level as factors in the "knowledge gap" hypothesis, which states that knowledge of heavily publicized topics is accrued faster over time by better educated persons. In each of two telephone surveys in the Lansing, Michigan, area, the same 253 adults were…

This study examined factors that affect individual judgments of violent behavior portrayed on television. Study subjects included twenty "average" adolescents (control group) and twenty adolescents with a history of in-school social adjustment problems (experimental, or "adjustment," group). All the sujects were evaluated for self-esteem,…