The primary aim of this study was to describe the movement of adolescents and young adults into and out of drug use and to predict heavy drug use. The data source is the Department of Labor's National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, which began in 1979 with a sample of 12,686 adolescents aged 14-21. After 17 rounds and 19 years, the response rate in…

Thirty-two states now have some form of accountability legislation that requires the reporting of school and school system performance indicators. This study examined the Alabama State Report Card to determine whether its information is sufficient to inform the public, legislature, and the media about the achievement of each school and school…

One focus of educational measurement has been the examination of the relationship between students' entering academic characteristics and their subsequent achievement outcomes. In the case of admissions tests, an important consideration is that test scores predict later achievement similarly for all groups of students who take the test. The…

This study examined aspects of concurrent, predictive, and consequential validity evidence of the Pre-Professional Skills Test (PPST) scores as college of education admission criteria. American College Test (ACT) and PPST subtest scores of 372 graduates, and PPST scores, undergraduate grade-point averages, and student teaching ratings of 1,062…

This study examined the usefulness of applying the Rasch rating scale model (D. Andrich, 1978) to high school grades. ACT Assessment test scores (English, Mathematics, Reading, and Science Reasoning) were used as "common items" to adjust for different grading standards in individual high school courses both within and across schools.…

This study sought to determine which, if any, of the possible predictor variables based on relationships with college performance available at freshman entry would prove useful in selecting students for admission. A study of the relationships between four college performance variables and eight admission variables was conducted using seven…

One purpose of this study was to summarize data across schools to provide documentation of the generalizability of the claim of validity of the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) for use in the law school admission process. A more important purpose is to provide national longitudinal data for law schools to examine against their school-specific data…

A study was conducted to determine the association among variables representing parent and school demographics, parents' opinions of the school, their reasons for choosing it, and their willingness to support the school in various ways, including the level of tuition they would pay. Data were collected from a stratified sample of 10 high schools…

In computerized adaptive testing (CAT), new or experimental items are frequently administered alongside operational tests to gather the pretest data needed to replenish and replace item pools. The two basic strategies used to combine pretest and operational items are embedding and appending. Variable-length CATs are preferred because of the…

The SAT® and high school grades are the most accurate predictors of first-year college performance. Together, these two measures have a high multiple correlation (r = 0.7) with first-year college grades when the correlation coefficient is corrected for restriction in range, criterion unreliability, and different course grading standards…

Study analyzed the results of a college rule regulating the maximum number of units students were allowed to carry and its effect on academic performance. (Author/RK)

Reported was a followup study of intellectual and nonintellectual predictors at second or fifth grade levels of later high school achievement level and status of about 150 subjects. (DB)

A study applied path analysis methods, using new techniques of causal analysis, to the problem of predicting the achievement, dropout rate, and satisfaction of university students. Besides providing explanations, the technique indicates possible remedial measures. (MSE)

Studied competing process models of counselors' clinical judgment for their capacity to account for variance in prognostic judgments and further tested for parsimony. Patton discusses problems of logic and data analysis in the model's formulation. Provides Stromer's response to the critique. (RC)