Reports on a study conducted to assess the effect of a reduction of tuition in the Virginia community college system on enrollments during fall 1986, contrasting state figures with national trends. Presents survey results, enrollment trends, results of interviews with students, faculty, and employers, and data on unemployment. (AYC)

Forty learning-disabled fourth graders learned to use a spelling study strategy, studied words under varying conditions, and predicted their scores on a subsequent test. Results indicated that, even without inclusion of specific metacognitive training components, strategy training produced important metacognitive improvement and that metacognitive…

This study evaluated the diagnostic validity of a task measuring abstract categorization ability in learning disabled (LD) and non-LD children. Data showed that the component of abstract category knowledge that best disciminates LD children from non-LD, is the knowledge of how members of abstract categories differ from each other. (Author/JAZ)

Summarizes trends in competency testing for teachers in the United States. Points out the strong public support for this testing and the problems with predicting teaching success from test results. Concludes that teacher competency testing in Canada, currently less prevalent than in the United States, will increase dramatically. (JHZ)

A study that addressed the question of whether coaching for the MCAT biases the relationship between test performance and medical school performance is described. The criterion used was whether or not a student experienced academic problems in medical school. (MLW)

Examined Estimated Learning Potential (ELP) and IQ scores as predictors of learning task performance in 31 Black and 32 White educable mentally retarded children. ELP did not correlate more highly with performance than did IQ score, yet ELP may be more differentially sensitive to declassifying Blacks as retarded. (NRB)

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of high school students to calculate the actual improvement in freshman grade point average, college completion, and total years of schooling from colleges' use of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), Crouse compares predictions based on high school rank to argue that the SAT's costs do not justify…

Compared beginning kindergarten subtest scores on Vane Test of Language and Vane Kindergarten Test to Metropolitan Achievement Test Scores in reading and math, Otis-Lennon School Ability Test Index, and placement into special education or high achievement programs following second grade. Results revealed effective predictability of the screening…

Provides information about: (1) demographics of Hispanic Americans; (2) findings indicating poorer preparation for college of Hispanics, than of non-Hispanic Whites; (3) roles of sociocultural characteristics and encouragement by school personnel; (4) predictive value of Hispanic high school grades and college admission test scores; and (5)…

Results of a 4-year follow-up study of high school graduates suggest that the typology that emerged from the longitudinal career indecision patterns may have some potential as diagnostic categories and that the Career Decision Scale is able to discriminate among them. (Author/ABB)

The question of which set of scores for those students who retake the Medical College Admission Test yields a better predictive validity is addressed. Five sets were considered as predictors. Twenty-five criteria were used, including grades earned in the freshman and sophomore years. (Author/MLW)

Validity coefficients of the Descriptive Tests of Language Skills, the Academic Tests of the ACT Assessment Program (ACT), and high school percentile rank were calculated with cumulative grade point average (CGPA) at end of each of four years of college for 496 students entering through a special admissions program. The most valid predictor of…

This research investigates the psychometric properties of a Foreign Language Attitude Scale (FLAS). Stepwise regression indicated that the FLAS made a significant contribution to the prediction of FL grades. In a second study, correlations between the FLAS and standardized measures of FL reading and listening proficiency were in the middle .40s.…

A study of persistence/dropout among open admissions college students found: (1) accurate predictions cannot be made for individual students at the time of matriculation; and (2) it is possible to predict that about 80 percent of future groups will fall in the persist category after two semesters, 51 percent after four semesters. (CMG)

A school administrator in 1928 expressed a favorable opinion of standardized intelligence and achievement tests, based on research findings correlating test scores with student achievement. Quotations from his article reveal how little the controversy over tests has changed in the intervening years. (TE)