A fundamental issue inherent to education policy is whether teacher qualifications such as certification status, degree level, preparation, and experience predict student achievement. While existing research provides some direction regarding the potential importance of these qualifications for productivity in secondary schools, less is known about…

This study explored a theory for motivation which included aspects of both attribution theory and goal theory. Motivational variables included beliefs about intelligence (entity or incremental), goal orientation (mastery/learning, performance-approach, performance-avoidance) and avoidant behaviours. Grades 4 and 5 students from a large,…

The present study examined the relationship between sub-clinical depressive symptoms and children's anticipated cognitive and behavioral reactions to two written vignettes depicting emotion-eliciting stressors (i.e., fight with one's best friend and failure at a roller blade contest). Participants (N = 244) ranging in age between 10 and 13 were…

The Bialer Scale and the Nowicki-Strickland Scale were administered twice, 4 weeks apart, to 526 students in the third through sixth grade from four public schools in a rural, predominately white, midwestern community. The association of verbal ability and the reliabilities of the locus of control scales were assessed in view of evidence that the…

In an attempt to improve the correlation between teacher ratings and self-concept scores, the McDaniel-Piers Young Children's Self Concept Scale, used by McDaniel and Leddick (l978), was revised to more adequately measure a single dimension of self-concept. A 20 item Teacher's Estimate Form (TEF) was developed on which teachers rated children on…

Ten special education teachers and two school psychologists scored the Bender-Gestalt protocals of elementary school children using the Koppitz scoring system. The reported correlations between teachers and school psychologists compared favorably to correlations between school psychologists as well as to interrater reliabilities reported in the…

Self-esteem and health locus of control have been postulated as predictors of attitudes and behaviors related to child health. This study measured the relationship among self-esteem, health locus of control, and health attitudes of 291 Native American fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students. Results are discussed. (Author/MT)

A large battery of various tests of intelligence, scholastic achievement, and short-term memory was administered to some 2,000 white, Negro and Mexican-American pupils in grades 4, 5, and 6 in a largely agricultural school district in the central valley of California. (Author)

Among third, fourth, and fifth graders tested, performance on embedded figures and leveling-sharpening tests correlated with performance on traditional items of class inclusion, suggesting that psychological differentiation is related to reasoning by class inclusion. However, age changes in differentiation do not account for age changes in class…

Evidence is presented for (1) operationally distinguishing between divergent thinking (DT) and IQ, and between verbal DT and non-verbal DT, among subjects representing the full normal ability range, and (2) decrease of DT/IQ correlations with increasing age and among elementary and secondary school girls. (Author)

Two studies involving 725 elementary school students describe the development and preliminary validation of a measure of children's life satisfaction, the Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale. For the most part, the measure's subscales correlate as expected with various criterion measures. The instrument appears useful for research…

The ability of 2 components, interpretation of a question and memory, to forecast the test-retest association coefficients of reading test items was studied with initial samples of 916 elementary and 949 secondary school students. For both populations, both components forecast the relative sizes of test-retest correlation coefficients. (SLD)

Studied correlates of academic performance across mathematics, science, reading, and writing for 6,883 Canadian students in grade 6 in 148 schools (the New Brunswick School Climate Study). Results show that students were differentially successful in different subject areas, that schools were differentially successful in different subject areas,…

A century ago, Christian missionaries founded Uganda's earliest schools. Many of these schools continue to espouse values inculcation as a stated goal. In this study of 502 Ugandan children completing primary school (P7), students' personal values and their perception of their school's values were measured using adaptations of the Rokeach Values…

Individual Education Plans (IEPs) and 504 Plans often recommend the use of accommodations to facilitate the learning of classroom material by students with disabilities. Since the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1997, students with disabilities are expected to participate in state and district-wide assessments, using…