This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 22 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the relationship of reading achievement to self-concept in third and fourth grade gifted students; (2) perceived teacher effort and student achievement in…

This follow-up study helped determine the predictive validity of parent and teacher ratings and scores from the Early Identification Assessment Battery. This assessment involved a random selection of 4-year-old children scheduled to enter a French immersion program in the Ottawa, Canada, school system. In the spring of grade 1, 63% of the original…

This review of the Northern California (NorCal) Cooperative Research Project on Student Attrition, which was conducted between 1968 and 1970, provides detailed information on how to use the findings of the study to identify those students who are most likely to drop out of college during their first term. Chapter I provides background information…

Literature on Chicano students in American higher education is reviewed and criticized. The following topics are addressed: the difficulty of defining "Chicano;" problems in working with Chicano census data; the United State Chicano population in terms of age, family size, as a percentage of all United States Hispanics, and geographical…

The purpose of this study was to determine if power, fear of failure, and achievement motive scores could predict athletes' self ratings and coaches' ratings of athletes' competitiveness. Subjects were 33 male and 10 female members of volleyball, basketball, track and field, and cross country university athletic teams. Athletes answered Form B of…

The potential use of actual performance by high school students in college-level courses as a predictor of college achievement, rather than or in addition to Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores, was investigated. At Syracuse University Project Advance over 4,000 students a year in 80 high schools in four states participate in joint high school…

A study was conducted at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to identify the variables affecting the academic success of community college transfer students. The study involved a survey of the 1,343 students who transferred to UCLA from a community college in Fall 1977. The questionnaire asked respondents to provide background…

A model of student attrition was synthesized from psychological, sociological, and educational sources, and contains six sets of variables: background, organizational, personal, environmental, attitudinal, and intent to leave. The model was tested with 1,909 full-time and unmarried university freshmen at a major midwestern university. The sample…

The college designations of over 5,800 recent graduates of 60 private secondary schools and the relationships between characteristics of these schools and the average selectivity of the colleges attended for each school were investigated. Aggregating all graduates, the data show considerable success in gaining admission to selective, prestigious…

A study was conducted by Los Angeles City College (LACC) to measure the academic achievement of 103 day and 34 evening students enrolled during Fall 1980 in Developmental Communication 20, a course in basic reading and writing skills. During the study, five measures of academic achievement were recorded for each student: first- and last-week…

This paper looks at the relationship between parents' social networks and aspects of child development. It has often been suggested that parents' links with kin, neighbors, friends, and local and non-local organizations are likely to have many effects on their children's development. These effects, however, have never been systematically…

Four-year old children in the New York State Experimental Prekindergarten Program (PreK) were administered three cognitive and two behavioral measures to determine if the data would provide sets of a smaller number of variables, to see if the variables overlapped, and to determine the appropriateness or redunduncy of the tests. The tests were: the…

Methodology and findings are summarized for a three-year research project undertaken by a consortium of 28 Northern California (Nor Cal) community colleges to identify and help the potential dropouts among full-time, entering freshmen. The report first discusses the creation of the Nor-Cal consortium and then examines each of the three research…

Impacts of both the originally proposed and the recently adopted University of California freshman admissions formulas on the regularly admitted freshman at Berkeley in the fall of 1972 and 1973 were assessed. The sex, ethnic characteristics, and graduation rates are examined for students who would have been included and excluded by the formulas.…

At the time of the First Followup Survey, approximately 18 months after graduation, sixty-five percent of the members of the High School Class of 1972 were unemployed, and eight percent were out of work. Forty-two percent were taking academic courses in a college or university. Graduates of the vocational high school curriculum were employed at…