Attempts to evaluate the cognitive-motivational profiles of students with reading comprehension difficulties have been scarce. The purpose of the present study was twofold: (a) to assess the discriminatory validity of cognitive, motivational, affective, and psychopathological variables for identification of students with reading difficulties, and…

From a larger longitudinal study of 610 fourth graders in 17 inner city schools, 40 students were randomly selected from 10 classrooms rated high (i.e., top quartile) or low (i.e., bottom quartile) in quality of writing instruction in grades 3 and 4. The written compositions of these students were scored in three ways: (1) according to a rating…

One of the motivations frequently cited by Sen and Nussbaum for moving away from a utility metric towards a capabilities framework is a concern about adaptive preferences or conditioned expectations. If utility is related to the satisfaction of aspirations or expectations, and if these are affected by the individual's previous experience of…

Objective: To evaluate the predictive power of executive functions, in particular, response inhibition, in relation to alcohol-related problems and illicit drug use in adolescence. Method: A total of 498 children from 275 families from a longitudinal high-risk study completed executive function measures in early and late adolescence and lifetime…

Differential predictors of the educational achievement status of homeless children were studied using multivariate statistical modeling. The effects of more general influences such as age, gender, and maternal educational level were studied before the influence of intellectual, behavioral, and emotional factors was examined. Participants were…

This paper analyzes the factors associated with student loan default in the Guaranteed Student Loan (GSL) program for higher education. The paper provides an overview of the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) Student Loan Recipient Survey, and, using data from the survey, presents a descriptive analysis of student loan recipients and…

This study examines the undergraduate characteristics and factors in the undergraduate experience that appear to correlate with beneficial classroom experiences. The study was conducted at a large research university with an undergraduate population of about 10,000 students. Data were derived from a survey instrument that is part of the…

Making decisions about residential or day program placement for adults with developmental disabilities requires examination of multidimensional measures of behavior and thus the use of multivariate statistical techniques along with expert opinion. This study used adaptive and maladaptive cluster scores on the Inventory for Client and Agency…

This report examines the significance of the ethnic composition of Dade County (Florida) high schools for the academic achievement and dropout rate of its students. The following statistical data were analyzed using multivariate analysis for all 76,830 students enrolled in grades 9-12 in 1989: (1) age; (2) sex; (3) grade; (4) ethnicity; (5)…

This study of the role which learner control plays in the success of interactive courseware (ICW) was designed to determine whether providing students with an option to review content in ICW--when attempting to answer embedded questions--improves their achievement on a posttest without adversely affecting the amount of time it takes to complete…

This study examines variables that affect staff development in rural schools. It examines systematically delivered rural staff development intervention in 28 rural schools in five states representative of the Southwest--Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. The study, involving 700 teachers, tests 18 hypotheses based largely on…

A study was carried out at Pennsylvania State University to examine the effects of both textual and computer animated orienting activities--i.e., mediators through which new information is presented to the learner--and practice on the application and problem solving skills of elementary school students. It was hypothesized that students provided…

The Memphis Apple Classroom of Tomorrow (ACOT), one of seven ACOT locations, was a joint project of the city schools and Apple Computer. The ACOT consisted of a class of 30 fifth grade students in an inner city school, who were selected on the basis of the willingness of the students and their parents to participate and to use computers in the…

This study examines both the existence and the determinants of sex differences in teacher salaries and mobility, administrative salaries, and promotions to administrative positions. Longitudinal data on individual careers in education were used, primarily for educators in Oregon during the period 1971-81, but in some instances for educators in New…

Although methodological integrity is not the sole determinant of the value of a program evaluation, decision-makers do have a right, at a minimum, to be able to expect competent work from evaluators. This paper explores five areas where evaluators might improve methodological practices. First, evaluation reports should reflect the limited…