Chapter IV describes the interim findings of an experimental program for underachieving high school graduates during their freshman year at Southern Illinois University. The statistically analyzed data are presented and discussed under four headings--(1) Subjects' occupation or whereabouts in the year following their participation in the program,…

This study contrasts the distributions of indices of academic abilities and achievements of entering freshmen classes and of classes that were intact at the end of the first year of college over an eight-year period. The data reported are based on two groups of students, one comprised of all students who completed the American College Test (ACT)…

The construct of motivation toward school is vaguely defined. The Junior Index of Motivation (JIM Scale) is one of few instruments claiming validity in measuring motivation toward school among junior and semior high students. This study discusses the shortcomings of the JIM scale, and compares item and total score characteristics and correlates…

The study investigated the prediction of grade point average (GPA) for disadvantaged and regular freshmen at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and the effectiveness, in terms of GPA, of an experimental program for disadvantaged students. Descriptive, variance, and correlational (single and multiple) analyses and chi square analyses related…

This paper examines the nature of confidence in relation to cognitive abilities, personality traits, and metacognition. Confidence was measured as it was expressed in answers to each test item during the administration of reading and listening sections of the TOEFL® iBT. The confidence scores were correlated with the accuracy scores from the TOEFL…

Relationships among variables that may predict medical school graduates who will be licensed, will practice primary care medicine, and will select Ohio and southwestern Ohio as the location of their practice were evaluated with the 1980 initial graduating class of the Wright State University School of Medicine, Ohio. The following statistical…

Development of new scales from test items usually requires several hundred cases in each of the defined groups. Application of multivariate techniques to existing test scales also encounters such problems as multicolinearity, combining ipsative with normative measures and ordinal with equal interval scales, differential prediction, and…

Previous research has studied the effects of different methods of item option weighting on the reliability and concurrent and predictive validity of achievement tests. Increases in reliability are generally found, but with mixed results for validity. Several methods of producing option weights, (i.e., Guttman internal and external weights and…

WHILE ATTEMPTS HAVE BEEN MADE TO CONSTRUCT MEASURES WHICH HAVE VALIDITY FOR PREDICTING ACADEMIC SUCCESS IN COLLEGE, MOST OF THESE TESTS HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED FOR NATIONWIDE TESTING PROGRAMS AND MAY NOT BE AS COMPLETELY VALID FOR MEASURING THE APTITUDE OF MINORITY GROUP HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WHO HAVE RESTRICTED ENVIRONMENTAL BACKGROUNDS. TO TEST THE…

TO DETERMINE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS (SES) AND MEASURES OF ACADEMIC MOTIVATION, APTITUDE, AND ACHIEVEMENT, A SAMPLE OF 4,200 11TH-GRADE CAUCASIAN STUDENTS FROM NINE MICHIGAN HIGH SCHOOLS WAS STUDIED. THE EXPERIMENT TESTED TWO NULL HYPOTHESES--(1) THERE IS NO RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SES AND AN OBJECTIVE MEASURE OF MOTIVATION, AND…

Employing similar variables, along with an assessment of the participation-aspiration hypothesis for athletes residing in rural Louisiana, a partial replication was attempted of previous studies of the athletic participation-aspiration relationship. A further extension of past studies was made by assessing the effects of selected predictor…

The Kuder Richardson-20 Formula is shown to be a special case, where each examinee is given sufficient time to answer each item, of a more general formula where each examinee may not be allowed the necessary time. The formula is extended to allow two scores, knowledge and speed, to be extracted from each examinees test score. Using a sample of 82…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a variety of academic intervention programs designed to improve the success of "at risk" students at one university. Most programs were designed to either help students in a particular course (such as calculus or chemistry) or in a particular major. The performance benchmark used to assess…

In 2001, Dr. Jordan Cohen, President of the AAMC, called for medical schools to consider using an Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) threshold to eliminate high-risk applicants from consideration and then to use non-academic qualifications for further consideration. This approach would seem to be consistent with the recent Supreme Court ruling…

This report is a description of the findings related to 5-year graduation rates of student athletes who entered National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I institutions in the fall semester of either 1984 or 1985. The study is based on data collected in the NCAA Study of Academic Performance of Student Athletes. Overall graduations…