In this longitudinal study, relationships were examined between educational aspirations and educational attainment for Australian young adults from different ethnic and social status backgrounds. Participants included 6,811 (3,547 women and 3,264 men) young adults (mean age = 20.3 years) who were in Year 9 when the study began. In the analysis,…

This article reports the results of a retrospective survey of participants in an exemplary transition program for college-bound youth with disabilities. The study compared how male and female participants perceived changes in themselves in the areas of academic skills, social skills, Internet skills, levels of preparation for college and…

This article gives a description of three analyses concerning the construct learning to learn and the assessment of cross-curricular skills. First, the correspondence between learning to learn and cross-curricular skills is examined by means of a theoretical content analysis. Second, the nature of cross-curricular skills is studied through a…

Data from graduate student applications at a large Western university were used to determine which factors were the best predictors of success in graduate school, as defined by cumulative graduate grade point average. Two statistical models were employed and compared: artificial neural networking and simultaneous multiple regression. Both models…

Based on a trend study of 970 graduating seniors, this paper presents a model for designing senior survey research studies to achieve optimum impact on assessment and policy development. The paper demonstrates how the link between research and policy was achieved through the conceptual organization, design and statistical analyses of the study.…

This paper reports estimates of the distribution of individual private rates of return to undergraduate and community college education by field of study for Canada. It is important to know the dispersion of the private rate of return to post-secondary education, as well as its average level. There are very different implications for…

This article is based on questionnaire data collected in November and December 2001 as part of the first year of fieldwork for the Economic and Social Research Council funded research project "Transforming Learning Cultures in FE" (TLCFE). In this initial survey, 229 questionnaires were returned from 15 learning sites in four further…

More than a dozen statistical models have been developed for the purpose of cognitive diagnosis. These models are supposed to extract a much finer level of information from item responses than traditional unidimensional item response models. In this paper, a general diagnostic model (GDM) was used to analyze a set of simulated sparse data and real…

An analysis of 100 Flemish high-school students' attitudes towards French and English (both "foreign" languages) revealed complex links between personality factors, gender, politicocultural identity, communicative behaviour and foreign language attitudes. Attitudes towards English were found to be much more positive than those towards French,…

This study was designed to answer the question "Does excessive absenteeism affect student academic achievement?" During the 2002-2003 academic year, 188 students attending grades 3 through 5 at an urban Tennessee elementary school with a high poverty level participated in the study. Demographic data were gathered to provide descriptive…

The expectations, self-perceptions, past academic behaviors, and attitudes of transfer students were examined in this study. Participants were 2,492 incoming transfer students (53% female, 14% African American, 14% Asian American or Pacific Islander, 6% Hispanic/Latino/a, and 65% White, and had a mean age of 21.8) at a mid-Atlantic doctoral…

The position of science and technology (S&T) in a society changes through time and from one society to another. In developing countries, many young people would like to opt for a career in S&T, while many rich, highly-developed countries notice declining recruitment of students to science and technology studies. In this article, the…

The current study explores parental socialization practices and the values transmitted to school-aged and young adult off-spring, focusing on race and gender issues involved in parental teachings. A community sample of 187 black and white mothers and fathers were interviewed with regards to their parenting practices using both quantitative and…

A recently developed statistical technique, often referred to as classification and regression trees (CART), holds great potential for researchers to discover how student-level (and school-level) characteristics interactively affect growth in mathematics achievement. CART is a host of advanced statistical methods that statistically cluster…

When establishing inclusive or whole schooling practices, the attitudes of students towards their peers with differing abilities to themselves is potentially a critical determinant in the success of schools to manage diverse student populations. This research investigates any potential changes in peer attitudes following the inclusion of…