Measures of biographical data, or biodata, provide indicators of one's life history and past experiences. Biodata information is often available in various forms during processes of academic admissions to higher education. Such information can be used, in combination with other factors, to predict students' future academic and extra-curricular…

This meta-analytic path analysis presents evidence that first-year academic performance (FYAP), measured by first-year grade point average (FYGPA) plays the major role in determining second-year student retention and that socioeconomic status (SES), measured by parental income, plays a negligible role. Based on large sample data used in a previous…

Evaluations of a large federally funded sexual risk avoidance education (SRAE) efforts in the USA have not been widely reported in the wake of funding cuts. The purpose of this study is to report results from a broad set of programmes to demonstrate the breadth of field effectiveness of these programmes. Twenty-seven separate community-based SRAE…

Clinicians routinely administer Hare's (2003) Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) to sex offenders and report PCL-R scores as meaningful predictors of recidivism risk. Although a 2005 meta-analysis reported a small (d = 0.29) association between PCL-R scores and sexual recidivism (Hanson & Morton-Bourgon, 2005), no meta-analysis has examined…

Magnet schools are one of the largest sectors of choice schools in the United States. In this study, we explored whether there is heterogeneity in magnet school effects on student achievement by examining the effectiveness of 24 recently funded magnet schools in 5 school districts across 4 states. We used a two-step analysis: First, separate…

This chapter introduces theory that undergirds the role of testing adaptations in assessment, provides examples of item modifications and testing accommodations, reviews research relevant to each, and introduces a new paradigm that incorporates opportunity to learn (OTL), academic enablers, testing adaptations, and inferences that can be made from…

A meta-analysis was conducted to examine the degree to which teachers' test scores and their performance in preparation programs as measured by their collegiate grade point average (GPA) predicted their teaching competence. Results from 123 studies that yielded 715 effect sizes were analyzed, and the mediating effects of test and GPA type,…

This study describes the reliability reporting practices in empirical studies using eight adolescent alcohol screening tools and characterizes and explores variability in internal consistency estimates across samples. Of 119 observed administrations of these instruments, 40 (34%) reported usable reliability information. The Personal Experience…

The Non-Cognitive Questionnaire (NCQ) is a 23-item measure assessing eight noncognitive variables that are thought to predict the performance and retention of students in college. The NCQ is widely used in research and practice. This study is a meta-analytic review of the validity of scores on the NCQ across 47 independent samples for predicting…

The Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR) is one of the most widely used social desirability scales. The authors conducted a reliability generalization study to examine the typical reliability coefficients of BIDR scores and explored factors that explained the variability of reliability estimates across studies. The results indicated…

Meta-analytic techniques were used to analyze the effects of age, education, and work experience on General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) validities and test scores. The sample consisted of 30,568 subjects from 143 Specific Aptitude Test Battery (SATB) validation or revalidation studies analyzed since 1972. The effect of these three variables on…

In a comprehensive review of the literature containing comparisons between boys and girls on motivation and/or achievement in science, findings were transformed into a common metric and analyzed. It was found that sex differences in both motivation and achievement are smaller than is generally assumed, but they do occur. (Author/BW)