In 1986, a study was conducted by the Rancho Santiago Community College District (RSCCD) to evaluate the relationship between reading placement scores and classroom performance. The study sample consisted of students from fall 1985, spring 1986, and fall 1986 who had been tested using the College Board Assessment and Placement Test upon…

Empathy among 61 elementary school students in the 4th grade was investigated, with particular attention to the relationship between empathy and the variables of self-concept, social competence, popularity, number of reciprocal friends, friendliness, and four dimensions of friendship expectations--mutual activities, conventional morality, loyalty…

Descriptive findings concerning organization and management practices in 16 urban high schools across the United States are reported in this paper. The findings are based on data from the as yet incomplete 3-year District/Secondary School Study. This research effort involved urban comprehensive high schools without special admissions requirements…

One of the important components of the elaboration theory (Reigeluth, 1979) is the synthesizer, which provides information to relate and integrate a set of concepts and which can appear in different formats. This study investigated the effectiveness of three formats of post-instruction synthesizer on student recall of definitions of concepts and…

With the proliferation of suicide prevention centers in the United States, the task of rapidly and effectively assessing an individual caller's suicide potential has become an important research problem. However, the social science researcher is often confronted with an ethical problem when the results of his predictive equations can be used to…

Psychologists have recently given considerable attention to the study of relationship and friendship development, but the contributing social processes have not been examined in relation to each other over time. To examine the effects of disclosure, similarity, equity, and social exchange on satisfaction with a relationship and liking for one's…

The use of the restructured Graduate Record Examination (GRE), students' entering grade point averages (GPAs), and other variables as predictors of success in graduate school at Texas A&M University (TAMU) was studied. Comparisons were also made to a similar study (Kunze, 1974). A sample of 564 entering graduate students who had taken the…

This paper describes the self-evaluation maintenance model (SEM) which suggests that much social behavior can be understood by assuming that persons are motivated to maintain a positive self-evaluation. The two processes by which one's social circumstances may affect self-evaluation, i.e., reflection and comparison, are described. The relationship…

This report reviews five studies dealing with drug abuse and adolescence and presents an overview of the social changes which have contributed to the increased use of marijuana and other illicit drugs. The importance of the longitudinal study as a research tool is emphasized in describing the research projects that deal with the epidemiology of…

A survey of 423 teachers in 15 Orange County (Florida) elementary schools sought to determine the extent to which unexpected teacer absenteeism could be explained by teacher morale, selected teacher and school characteristics, and teacher perceptions of the leadership behavior of principals. The Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (Form XII)…

This report summarizes the research and results of the Evaluation of Experiential Learning Project, undertaken to (1) assess the impact of experiential learning programs on the social, psychological, and intellectual development of secondary school students; and (2) use these data to identify those program variables most effective in facilitating…

Fully addressing most problems clients bring to therapy usually requires more than one session. Some student therapists seem to be more capable than others of engaging clients and promoting more visits when warranted. To discover whether graduate admissions information can predict a psychologist-trainee's ability to readily engage clients, data…

In 1982-83 the Jefferson County Public Schools (Kentucky) (JCPS) implemented a pilot effective schools project for 10 elementary buildings, based on the inservice program, "Creating Effective Schools," by Brookover and others (1982). This paper provides an overview of the origin of the program in JCPS, how the program was conducted, and…

Based upon prior research in the College of Business and Public Administration and the first year of the university testing program at an upper division, midwestern university, implications for testing of older transfer students are drawn. Students should be tested before, or during, their first term of academic history. If remediation is not…

The mathematical skills possessed by students taking introductory biology courses were investigated. A list of 23 mathematical competencies was identified as part of the development of a 46-item multiple-choice test to measure the extent to which students possessed these competencies. The Biomathematics Skills Test (BST) was administered to…