School readiness is important for children, for their families, and for society at large. The authors' exploration of school readiness focuses on how the home literacy environment, parenting behavior, and social characteristics affect two aspects of school readiness: basic skills, such as reading and math; and behavior problems, including…

Retention and graduation rates have been topics of concern for undergraduate institutions. These indicators are not as applicable for two-year institutions where students' goals are more varied. This study examined the retention over four semesters of 678 first-time, full-time community college students with respect to their initial educational…

The relationship between high academic achievement and personal characteristics is fraught with myths. Three studies examined this relationship in academic high achievers (AHA). Study 1 participants were 529 of 850 members of the New York Phi Beta Kappa (72 percent return) responding to a 1979 mail questionnaire. Study 2 participants were 414 Phi…

These two newsletters from the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented (NRC/GT) contain the following articles: (1) "NRC/GT: Professional Development--Not an Event" (E. Jean Gubbins), discusses NRC/GT research-based principles related to professional development and the importance of ongoing professional development; (2)…

This report is the first in a series of four final reports that present the findings of the Longitudinal Study of the Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Services Program. Initiated in fall 1992, the study has tracked VR participation and post-VR experiences of applicants to and consumers of VR services (n=8,500) for up to 3 years following exit from…

This sixth annual report provides welfare dependence indicators through 2000, reflecting changes since enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act in 1996 and highlighting benefits under Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), now Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF); the Food Stamp program; and Supplement…

This paper examines the relation of cognitive and developmental-contextual variables to alcohol use in adolescence and early adulthood in an attempt to increase the understanding of alcohol use during this age period. Components for each of the rational decision making theories, specifically attitude, subjective norm, and self-efficacy, were…

This document contains four symposium papers on assessing employee performance. In "Influence of Liking and Similarity on Multi-rater Proficiency Ratings of Managerial Competencies" (Reid A. Bates), the pattern of correlations identified between raters, independent variables, and different competencies suggests that raters may react…

This reports discusses results of the Nevada Department of Education's fifth biennial survey to assess drug and alcohol attitudes and use among students in grades 6, 8, 10, and 12 (N=7,770). This 1998 survey also addresses issues of safety, violence, and school climate in keeping with the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act of 1994.…

This paper discusses the outcomes of a study that examined Hans Eysenck's antisocial behavioral hypothesis (ASB). Eysenck's theory of personality has three temperament-based traits: Psychoticism (P), Extraversion (E), and Neuroticism (N). His ASB hypothesis predicts that individuals high on P, E, and N with poor socialization are at the greatest…

This paper examines the associations between food insecurity, participation in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), and children's well-being. We address problems of selection by restricting our sample to children in families in which at least one child participates in the NSLP. Results suggest that food insecurity is associated with…

The present study was conducted on 400 students (200 Boys and 200 Girls) selected from Senior Secondary School of A. M. U. Aligarh; India to establish the prognostic value of different measures of cognition, personality and demographic variables for success at Higher Secondary level in Science stream. The score obtained on different variables are…

Describes research that measured personal, national, and occupational identity among Jamaican postsecondary students. Observes that the variable of attitudes toward minorities was strongly related to personal and national identity, and suggests encouragement of positive attitudes toward ethnic groups in order to foster acceptance of differences in…

A University of Toronto effort to develop an accurate measure of affective characteristics in pharmacy school applicants to replace the interview resulted in development of a self-assessment instrument. It was found that a combination of overall grade point average, pharmacy college entrance examination verbal and reading scores, problem-solving…

Describes a study that examined various characteristics of undergraduate students enrolled in a computer skills course. Variables considered include gender, college major, high school computer courses, other prior computer experience, computer self-efficacy, computer attitude, computer anxiety, and cognitive style. (Author/LRW)