The purpose of this study is the substantiation of the use of selective cognitive and affective measures for effective identification of degree and level of academic disadvantagement of Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP) students in New York State. This was accomplished by investigating the relationship between academic efficiency (e.g., selective cognitive and non-cognitive measures) and persistence (e.g., time spent in college); (b) establishing base rates of learner behaviors for each grade level for selected predictor and criterion measures; and, (c) investigating the relationship between academic efficiency and academic success criteria. The design of the study is based on two premises: that academic efficiency is related to persistence, and that it is also related to success. Predictors used are academic efficiency measures and biographic data, while criteria used are persistence measures and academic success measures. Major results and conclusions based are: (1) upper classmen perform more efficiently than lower classmen on the measures selected for inclusion in the study, leading to the acceptance that academic efficiency is related to persistence; (2) positive but weak relationships exist between individual academic efficiency measures; (3) relationships between persistence and sex, type of high school diploma, and ethnicity do not exist. (Author/AM)