A study was conducted to assess the use of the Psychological Services Bureau's Aptitude Test for Practical Nursing (PSB Aptitude Test) as an entrance requirement for the licensed vocational nurse (LVN) program at College of the Sequoias. The study sought to determine whether the PSB Aptitude Test was a valid indicator of success in the LVN…

Many tests which attempt to produce intelligence quotient or mental age scores for children rely on time taken to complete the task for a valid result to be obtained. A number of tests were carried out with both Down's Syndrome and normal children (128 Down's Syndrome; 162 normal) in order to determine (1) relative abilities to complete the tasks…

Researchers used data from a 1981 questionnaire survey of 248 heads of household in 3 Mississippi counties to examine efficient predictors of community and life satisfaction in rural Mississippi. Analyzing the impact of 43 variables on 25 questionnaire items concerning community satisfaction, researchers found 13 significant predictors of…

Although social support has been operationally defined, a lack of conceptual clarity has made measurement modest and unreliable. To investigate the feasibility of measuring social support from a qualitative rather than a quantitative perspective, and to consider negative social interactions in the assessment, 130 college students were administered…

Botswana has nearly attained universal primary school attendance, but the additional quantitative intake has weakened the original qualitative base. Employing data collected by the National Commission on Education in Botswana, this study looked for ways to derive benchmark measures of the effects of school quality on learning. One method uses a…

To ascertain changes in cognitive correlates of learning as students advance through hierarchical instruction, 24 individual difference measures were obtained from 166 Navy trainees who had completed a computer-managed course in electricity and electronics. Principal component analysis and varimax rotation were computed for cognitive…

A longitudinal study of the economic self-sufficiency and academic achievement of Indochinese refugees, commonly known as "Boat People," concludes that cultural background and family influence play key roles in achievement in American society. Statistical data were drawn from two surveys of 6,775 individuals in 1,384 Chinese, Laotian, and…

This report is part of a study of school districts in British Columbia (Canada), and deals with school district ethos--interest in defined focal areas--both as a measure of school district quality and as a potential predictor of student achievement. The study concentrates on one of these focal areas--holding schools accountable through monitoring.…

Longitudinal studies of the effects of aggression and social withdrawal on later development contribute to an understanding of how socially deviant behaviors may affect future adaptation. This study is concerned with how aggression and social withdrawal are related to criminal activity approximately 10 years after individuals were initially…

Addressing two issues of Dweck and Leggett's (1988) social cognitive theory of personality, this short-term longitudinal field study investigated the relationship between implicit theories about the self and school anxiety among adolescents making the transition to junior high school. It was hypothesized that students who believed that their…

This study examined deaf children's reading comprehension in relation to the linguistic structures of their sign languages of fluency and the amount of sign language input they had received. Children (n=47) born severely or profoundly deaf, in age groups from 7 to 15 years and all attending day classes in which the English-structured Manually…

This longitudinal study focused on predicting student outcomes through multiple test scores and vocational preferences using standardized instruments and self-reports of career plans. A total of 444 students in the class of 1986 were enrolled in either a non-vocational or vocational curriculum at one of 4 high schools in a small, rural,…

Current approaches to educating at-risk students are the result of several shifts in thinking over the last 35 years, and a new way of defining at-risk students is needed to permit changes in school policy and practice to meet these students' needs. Cultural deprivation was originally considered the single cause of at-risk status. Subsequently,…

This paper identifies and assesses factors that may characterize students at risk of dropping out, based on a ninth grade class of Cincinnati (Ohio) public school students which was followed for five years, from 1984-85 to 1988-89. The paper aims to develop a quick, easy, and reliable method that teachers, counselors, and principals can use to…

The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) measures the English language proficiency of foreign students who apply for higher education in the United States. It is administered according to a strict schedule through the International and Special Center (I&SC) testing program or at ad hoc intervals by institutional users as part of the…