The National Education Longitudinal Studies (NELS) program is a long-term effort that now encompasses the educational experience of youth from three decades, the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. The NELS program studies the educational, vocational, and personal development of students at various grade levels, and the personal, familial, social,…

Results of a study of the relationship between students' propensities to withdraw from a course and the faculty member's grading in that course show that students do use the option to withdraw from courses when grades tend to be low in order to protect their grade point averages. (JMD)

The effects of record-card-type information on performance expectations were examined. Expectations based solely on preobservational information (standardized tests, previous teachers, family, physical characteristics) were positively related to the quality of the reported performance. Implications for the public concern over record card…

In Girardier vs Webster College the court held that a private college may refuse to release college transcripts if students have not repaid their National Defense Education Act loans even though they've declared bankruptcy, and that no private remedy could be inferred under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974. Implications are…

Academic officers at U.S. colleges and universities face a number of important decisions regarding how credits and grades earned overseas as part of a study abroad program should be incorporated into students' home academic records. The purpose of this article is to take a closer look at the way grades are handled at home institutions and the way…

In recent years, the emergence of non-traditional educational experiences such as online learning and certification, combined with the growth of the life-long learning market, has presented a new set of challenges for the higher education community. Increasingly, the U.S. economy is technology driven, and the need for trained personnel to support…

A study was conducted of students at Saddleback College (SC) in California, who requested that transcripts be sent to a four-year college, university, or professional school between November 1, 1992 and April 30, 1993. The study sample included only students who were registered in both fall 1992 and spring 1993, because those students were more…

This book provides a guide for early childhood educators in implementing and using portfolio assessment to measure children's learning. Chapter 1 focuses on, "How Young Children Learn." It explains that children are active learners who learn by doing things repeatedly, by making mistakes, and by being exposed to varying approaches,…

The 1990 High School Transcript Study (HSTS) collected 21,607 transcripts from 330 schools. Similar studies were conducted of high school course taking patterns in 1987 (the 1987 High School Transcript Study of approximately 22,700 transcripts) and in 1982 (approximately 12,000 transcripts from the High School and Beyond Study). The introductory…

This paper demonstrates a grade server that allows college students to access their grades over the Internet from the instructor's home page. Using a CGI (common gateway interface) program written in Visual Basic, the grades are read directly from an Excel spreadsheet and presented to the requester after he/she enters a password. The grade for…

A file which contains data on financial aid and school costs, for a sample of students in the 1985-86 school year is presented. Each record contains information from the school registrar's office, from the student financial aid office record, and from a questionnaire completed by students. There are 3,774 records on the Statistical Analysis System…

The National Longitudinal surveys (NLS) of Labor Market Behavior have been conducted by the Center for Human Resource Research at Ohio State University and supported by the Department of Labor since l966. In this paper, data from the fifth and newest NLS cohort, a national cohort of 12,686 youth who were aged 14-21 in 1979, are discussed.…

The Stanford Curriculum Study, which provides comprehensive and systematic information about curricular choices of undergraduates, is discussed. The information can promote policy decisions, help departments regularly monitor their programs, and generate a database for research concerning undergraduate education. The study analyzes the academic…

Over 12,000 transcripts from a sample of 1982 high school graduates were collected and analyzed as part of the High School and Beyond Study. The analysis produced four statistics: the average number of years that students took courses in science and mathematics; the percentages of students who had taken three or more years each of science and…

Designed for employees of elementary schools, this document answers questions concerning the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The guide is written in question and answer form; questions are organized around related issues. Provisions not applicable to elementary schools have been omitted. "Purpose and Applicability"…