Data were collected on 211 undergraduates who were followed by Learning Disabled Student Services (LDSS) at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst during the academic year 1988-1989. Additional data on educational backgrounds were collected for 80 members of the LDSS population, to define variables important in predicting college outcomes.…

Isolating risk factors associated with drug and alcohol use and abuse has been a major task for many researchers. A study was designed to determine whether longitudinal models of social conformity and drug and alcohol use would provide similar results for males and females. Data were obtained from 654 young adults (192 males, 492 females) who had…

This paper is part of a series of applied statistics monographs intended to provide supplementary reading for applied statistics students. In the present paper, derivations of the unbiased standard error of estimate for both the raw score and standard score linear models are presented. The derivations for raw score linear models are presented in…

The longitudinal Guttman simplex (LGS), a method of modeling stage sequences or levels over time, allows for individual differences in sequence progression or development. The LGS is particularly appropriate in modeling tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use stages with adolescent subjects where relationships among drugs and degree of involvement may…

A causal model of academic factors affecting undergraduate student persistence at a large, urban, commuter university was tested. The effects of academic variables on persistence from fall to spring semester were also assessed for transfer and native students. The model accounted for 49% of the total variance in persistence, while separate models…

A study of the relationship between Spanish and English writing proficiency had as subjects 344 native Spanish-speaking college freshmen, students of English as a second language (ESL), in five universities in Puerto Rico. A questionnaire and four writing tasks in English and Spanish were administered in ESL class, and student scores on…

A statistical and practical policy-oriented procedure for supporting or not supporting the use of student evaluations for faculty promotion decisions is described. The procedure is based on measures of teaching excellence. A comprehensive General Systems Theory type of flow diagram cross-classifies and causally relates all the relevant variables.…

This report for researchers in rural sociology develops a conceptual and analytic framework for evaluating policies or programs through interrelated models. Three models--structural analysis, control programming, and simulation--allow researchers to assess policy/program impact, determine why expected impacts did or did not occur, and modify…

A study examined the validity of using questions concerning retirement expectations in large-scale micro surveys. A simple static labor supply model that considered wages, hours worked, and health data was developed for this purpose. Next, the model was implemented using data from the National Longitudinal Survey (NLS) on the Labor Market…

Possible relationships among selected psychological, sociological, and economic characteristics of doctoral students were studied, and these characteristics were compared for students who completed or withdrew from Doctor of Education degree (Ed.D.) programs at West Virginia University. Questionnaires were mailed to 254 Ed.D. recipients and 287…

Although gifted children have been the subject of investigation for 60 years, little information is available on gifted adults, particularly in regard to life satisfaction. To investigate life satisfaction in adults who as children were labeled as gifted, 298 adults, with a mean age of 27, completed a Likert-type instrument measuring degree of…

A study was conducted to identify the nonverbal behaviors predicting hireability, as well as the nonverbal behaviors candidates employ that predict hireability. Subjects were 25 campus recruiters, each of whom was given a cover letter explaining the purpose of the study and three copies of a Likert-type questionnaire on a single communicator…

Correlates of departmental quality at the masters and doctoral level in regional colleges and universities were studied. The sample of 45 departments represented 14 public institutions in two states and included departments of biology, chemistry, education, history, and mathematics. Based on multivariate linear regression, departmental quality was…

A study of 6 low-achieving and 5 high-achieving minority-isolated elementary schools in San Diego, California, identified 28 factors that appeared to make a difference in achievement levels. Thirteen were associated with time-on-task, focus, and structure, i.e. variables within the schools' control. The remainder were miscellaneous background…

Kohn's work on the relationship between social class and parental values was expanded by searching for value dimensions other than Kohn's self-direction/conformity construct and by investigating three aspects of social structure: immigrant status, quality of neighborhood, and housing type. Data were collected from parents of 305 9- to 11-year-old…