With the advent of computer technology, students can now be informed about their progress and provided feedback limited only to the level of efficiency. For the 1999-2000 school year, a computer reporting program, TigerNet, was instituted in a junior high school in Pennsylvania. Through a year-long investigation, data were collected to determine…

Temperament and perceived family and friend support were significantly related to depressive symptoms and delinquent activity in 975 adolescents (high school sophomores and juniors) in western New York. Results suggest that part of the influence of temperamental difficulty may be a result of reduced levels of family and friend support. (SLD)

Examines path-analytic models linking measures of self-concept, attributions, and grades of 194 Filipino high school students. Finds attributions for successful outcomes to ability or effort mediated the causal relationship between achievement and self-esteem. Interprets negative paths from ability attributions for success in mathematics to…

Effects of aspirations, homework, and scores on standardized tests (endogenous variables) on teachers' grades and effects of exogenous variables of socioeconomic status and gender on endogenous variables were studied for 753 Israeli elementary school students. Complex effects are discussed. Teachers tended to grade students properly, according to…

Results are presented of an evaluation of effects of the within-classroom component of the Second International Science Study on science learning processes and products at the twelfth-grade level in Hong Kong. Partial Least Squares Path (PLSPATH) analysis is used to model the data obtained from 6,103 students in 217 classrooms. (SLD)

According to self-efficacy theorists, people's judgments of what they can accomplish are influential arbiters in human agency and, as such, powerful determinants of their behavior. In large part, this is because these self-efficacy beliefs are said to act as mediators between other acknowledged influences on behavior, such as skill, ability,…

This study uses statistical data from the Current Population Survey to develop new state-by-state dropout estimates as an alternative to those published by the U.S. Department of Education (USDE). The following new findings are reported: (1) youth are completing high school at a higher rate than previously noted; (2) variations in dropout rates…

Focusing on the family as a context for the development of life plans by youth, this report summarizes findings of a 14-year longitudinal study on the educational and occupational life plans and achievement of youth in rural low-income areas in six southeastern states. Specific attention is given to (1) how parental educational and occupational…

An assessment of a four-stage conceptual model reveals that critical thinking has indirect positive effects on political participation through its direct effects on personal control, political efficacy, and democratic attitudes. The model establishes causal relationships among selected personality variables (self-esteem, personal control, and…

Path analysis was used to discover predictors of personality, school conduct, and distractibility-hyperactivity problems in this 4-year longitudinal study of 173 rural children. While previous studies had shown that children's behavior disorders are related to sex of child, family disruption, IQ, Bender-Gestalt Test scores, and socioeconomic…

The results of the secondary analysis of data obtained in a study of Head Start graduates in the public schools are summarized in this report. Due to unforseen circumstances, the original longitudinal research design was not fully implemented, and the study was constrained to one administration of a test battery to first-grade students. The…

The study examined whether significant rural-urban differences still persisted in selected factors affecting a community's fertility level. The factors selected were education, occupational class, income, and the participation of women in the labor force. Tested was the hypothesis that the educational development, occupational class, economic…

This study presents evidence that differences in mathematical career outcomes of males and females are the result of early socialization in the family. One reason fewer females than males elect to take high school mathematics courses is that during middle school years females perceive low parental evaluations of their mathematical aptitude and…

Causal path analysis was used to determine the direct and indirect influences of intellectual ability, quality of instruction, achievement motivation, quantity of academic coursework, and time spent on homework on high school students' learning, as measured by their grade point averages (GPAs). Other relevant influences on grades were controlled.…

A model of student attrition was synthesized from psychological, sociological, and educational sources, and contains six sets of variables: background, organizational, personal, environmental, attitudinal, and intent to leave. The model was tested with 1,909 full-time and unmarried university freshmen at a major midwestern university. The sample…