The current system of educating disabled students provides financial incentives to schools to overidentify students as disabled and underserve those that are identified. The incentive to overidentify is caused by providing schools with additional funds as more students are placed in special education categories that are ambiguous to diagnose and…

This study uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study [Reichman, N., Teitler, J., Garfinkel, I., & McLanahan, S. (2001). The fragile families and child wellbeing study: Sample and design. "Children and Youth Services Review, 23", 303-326] to describe primary child care arrangements of employed, predominantly low-income mothers…

It is often assumed that schools themselves play an important role in students not completing school. However, the literature is inconsistent on what school characteristics influence school leaving, and identified school effects may be spurious due to the absence, or poor measurement, of appropriate individual-level influences. The importance of…

Two theoretical models were constructed to illustrate how stressful events, family and friends support, depression, substance use, and death attitude mutually influence to create cumulative risks for suicide. The models were evaluated using structural equation modeling. Results showed that suicidality was strongly predicted by death attitude,…

Behavioral descriptors were identified as variant or invariant predictors of perceived popularity in a sample of 516 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children located in 26 majority-Black or majority-White classrooms. Athletic ability, prosocial behavior, being "cool", social withdrawal, and "personal privilege" (i.e., having a lot of expensive…

The purpose of the study was to investigate the associations between first-time full-time freshmen's attributes and fall-to-fall retention at Northeast State Technical Community College. The 15 attributes included age, first-generation student status, gender, high school classification, race, the student's application date to the institution…

A research project was undertaken to determine: (1) the relationships between scores on the Florida College-Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST) and prior scores on corresponding entry placement tests; (2) the relationships between course completion patterns and performance on CLAST subtests; and (3) the relationships between grades in reading,…

Data from a student satisfaction survey were analyzed to determine those variables that best predict student satisfaction and to build a discriminant model of student satisfaction/dissatisfaction. The survey was administered to 2,634 undergraduate students enrolled in a regional university during the spring semester, 1993. Based on the findings of…

In an effort to determine the correlation between assessment placement test scores and grade point average (GPA), a study was conducted at Terra State Community College (TSCC), in Ohio. A sample population was constructed of 93 potential students who took the American College Testing Service Assessment of Student Skills for Entry Transfer (ASSET)…

Five issues relative to the use of different Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) models to identify effective schools and teachers were examined using data from all students in the Dallas (Texas) public schools in grade 3 in 1994 and grade 4 in 1995. OLS models using first- and second-order interactions produced…

The gain, or difference, score is defined as the difference between the posttest score and the pretest score for an individual. Gain scores appear to be a natural measure of growth for education and the social sciences, but they contain two sources of measurement error, error in either the pretest or posttest scores, and cannot be considered…

This paper presents findings from an historical investigation of visual literacy, a unique aspect being that the approach relied on the marriage of two disciplines--geography and history--which study change over time. Maps and their interpretation of data by cartographers tend to provide a foundational context that can illuminate past and present…

High school is an important time in an adolescent's life, during which the influence of peers can be both positive and negative. Using data from a national longitudinal study, high school students' peer groups and the relationship between the values of peer groups with whom students associated in high school and a broad range of educational…

Thousands of older incarcerated youth (17-18 years old) pass through the juvenile justice system every year. Many are not viable candidates for traditional high school graduation because of limited earned credits and large gaps in education. The purpose of this study was to establish an effective and efficient means for determining students'…

The usefulness of the Iowa Algebra Aptitude Test (IAAT) as a predictor of student achievement in secondary mathematics courses was studied. Subjects were 977 students from 7 Iowa schools in grades 6 through 9. Data collected included their IAAT scores and Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) mathematics skills test scores, as well as data about…