The most powerful predictor of student persistence in undergraduate music education majors was found to be the grade point average, especially the applied music grade at the end of one year of study. (RM)

The need to attend to both methodological and social concerns is demonstrated in two examples: one where the unchecked effects of the social consequences of a methodologically rigorous research design invalidated the evaluation and a second where explicit trade-offs between methodological rigor and social costs enabled the evaluation to proceed.…

The use of matched sampling in experimental and nonexperimental research ahs been frustrated by the problems of attrition and incomplete matching. The amount of attrition of sample size and incomplete matching are shown to be a function of various aspects of the research, including the level of measurement of the matching variables, the sampling…

An approach for tracking a mobile group of 1,045 junior high school transfers and minimizing attrition in a longitudinal study of adolescent behavior was studied. Students were tracked through the home or directly through the new school. The new school strategy was very effective and greatly improved tracking. (SLD)

A study examined data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experience and Panel Study of Income Dynamics from those who consistently responded and those who missed some surveys. Attrition either had no effect on regression estimates or affected only the estimates of the intercept. (Author/SK)

Bias due to attrition of respondents poses a threat to the internal and external validity of research findings. Discusses methods of detecting attrition bias in longitudinal family research, and presents Heckman's procedure to correct attrition bias. Data from the University of California Longitudinal Study of Generations are used to illustrate…

Examined and compared community college transfer rates using various definitions of potential transfer students. Includes discussion of how these definitions relate to student background characteristics. Findings illustrate the trade-off between restricting the pool of potential transfer students and excluding substantial portions of the original…

Effective early childhood intervention and child care policies should be based on an understanding of the effects of child care quality and type on child well-being. This article describes methods for securing unbiased estimates of these effects from nonexperimental data. It focuses on longitudinal studies like the one developed by the National…

The study under review is the second-year evaluation report of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP), a publicly funded voucher program that allows low-income students in Milwaukee to attend secular and religious private schools in that city. Its primary finding is that there were no overall statistically significant differences in…

This report examines the management of three areas related to the preparation of volunteers for Peace Corps service: staging, pre-service training, and attrition. The introduction summarizes the activities undertaken by the review. Chapter 2 focuses on staging, which is variously intended to provide country orientation, information about Peace…

Veterinary student attrition has declined from 14 percent in 1963 to 3.1 percent in 1974. The current attrition rate for academic reasons is ascertained and theoretical bases are explored. Also presented are some attrition data from allied professions. (LBH)

This digest in Spanish examines the reasons why--outside of retirement--school principals leave their jobs. It also lists strategies districts can employ to retain principals. Many principals exit their profession because of the long hours, the workload and complexity of the job, the unending supervision of evening activities, the minimal pay…

This Digest examines the reasons why--outside of retirement--school principals leave their jobs. It also lists strategies districts can employ to retain principals. Many principals exit their profession because of the long hours, the workload and complexity of the job, the unending supervision of evening activities, the minimal pay difference…

Investigated the feasibility of a behavioral weight-loss program at the worksite. Three groups of participants (N=133) completed a behavioral treatment program. Two groups also received a structured-maintenance program. Although attrition rates were high, the three groups lost a significant amount of weight. The structured training group…

A study of sixth grade boys and their families hypothesized that boys who were prone to high levels of distress but low or moderate levels of self-restraint would be particularly unlikely to agree to make considerable efforts to complete tasks that were not especially enjoyable. Results supported the hypothesis. (RH)