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The prospective major fields of study and career plans of National Merit Finalists are recorded on the scholarship application forms submitted during the students' senior year in high school. (Finalists are selected from the top 1% in measured scholastic ability.) A study of the answers given from 1957-67 indicates that interest among boys in the physical sciences increased immediately after Sputnik but declined until about 1963 when it stabilized. Interest in the social sciences declined in 1958 and 1959 but increased until 1965 and has declined slightly since then. The choice of engineering decreased sharply after 1957 but began to stabilize about 1962 and has been relatively steady since. Interest in teaching increased among both sexes until about 1962 when girls, but not boys, began to show a declining interest. Business and other practical fields have shown steady declines, the reverse of a rising trend of interest in the humanities. The trends seem to reflect genuine changes rather than chance fluctuations. They are statistically significant and many have persisted for several years. If these educational major and career decisions are considered representative of all students in the top 1% , many of the temporal shifts observed are large enough to have a marked effect on the availability of talent for certain fields. (JS)

SCALES FOR PREDICTING 1ST-YEAR COLLEGE GRADES AND EXTRACURRICULAR ACHIEVEMENT WERE DEVELOPED BY ITEM ANALYSIS FROM EACH OF FOUR ITEM POOLS--THE CALIFORNIA PSYCHOLOGICAL INVENTORY (CPI), THE VOCATIONAL PREFERENCE INVENTORY (VPI), AN ADJECTIVE CHECK LIST (ACL), AND AN EXPERIMENTAL OBJECTIVE BEHAVIOR INVENTORY (OBI)--USING A SAMPLE OF 1,013 NATIONAL MERIT FINALISTS. THE SCALES WERE CROSS-VALIDATED USING SAMPLES OF 179 MALE AND 138 FEMALE MERIT FINALISTS AND 201 MALE AND 218 FEMALE STUDENTS OF AVERAGE ABILITY. THE CPI AND OBI SCALES HAD HIGHER VALIDITIES THAN THOSE DEVELOPED FROM THE ACL AND VPI. THE BEST PREDICTOR OF COLLEGE GRADES WAS RANK IN HIGH SCHOOL CLASS (HSR) FOLLOWED BY THE NONINTELLECTIVE GRADE SCALES AND FINALLY BY APTITUDE TEST SCORES. THE NONINTELLECTIVE SCALES ADDED TO THE PREDICTION OF GRADES IN A REGRESSION EQUATION INCLUDING HSR AND TEST SCORES. THE BEST PREDICTORS OF EXTRACURRICULAR ACHIEVEMENT IN A REGRESSIVE EQUATION INCLUDED THE NONINTELLECTIVE SCALES. (AO)

DATA ON THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE 1964 NATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM (NASP) FOR NEGRO YOUTH WERE COLLECTED AND COMPARISONS MADE BETWEEN NOMINEES, FINALISTS, WINNERS, NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARSHIP FINALISTS, OTHER NONWHITE STUDENTS, AND THE SCHOOL POPULATION GENERALLY. THE AIM OF NASP IS TO FIND THE MOST ABLE NEGRO YOUTH AND TO HELP THEM FINANCIALLY TO ATTEND COLLEGE. DATA WERE OBTAINED ON THE YOUTHS' SECONDARY SCHOOLS, ASPIRATIONS, FAMILY AND SOCIOECONOMIC BACKGROUNDS, AND ON THEIR SCORES ON CERTAIN TESTS. AMONG THE FINDINGS OF THIS STUDY WERE THE FOLLOWING-- (1) ALMOST ALL OF THE FINALISTS' VOCABULARY TEST SCORES WERE ABOVE THE AVERAGE SCORE OF COLLEGE FRESHMEN, (2) THE GOALS OF NASP WERE GENERALLY HIGHER THAN NATIONAL MERIT FINALISTS AND MUCH ABOVE THOSE OF AVERAGE STUDENTS, (3) THE MEDIAN FAMILY INCOME OF FINALISTS WAS HIGHER THAN THAT OF ALL OTHER NONWHITE FAMILIES AND IN THE OPINION OF THE JUDGES SHOWED A SMALL POSITIVE RELATIONSHIP TO ABILITY, (4) THE PARENTS OF NOMINATED STUDENTS HAD MORE EDUCATION THAN THOSE OF OTHER NONWHITE STUDENTS AND PARENTS' EDUCATION WAS FELT TO BE RELATED TO THE ABILITY OF THE NOMINEES, (5) NOMINATED STUDENTS MORE FREQUENTLY CAME FROM INTACT FAMILIES THAN DID OTHER NONWHITE STUDENTS, AND MORE FINALISTS AND WINNERS CAME FROM INTACT FAMILIES THAN DID THOSE NOT SELECTED, AND (6) FINALISTS TENDED TO BE AMONG THE OLDER CHILDREN IN THEIR FAMILIES. (EF)

A factor analytic study investigated the validity of the California Psychological Inventory. Sixteen of the eighteen scales were investigated in relation to criterion variables and most showed that the factor scales were valid measures. (JKS)

A critical review of Jensen's book which contains a reprint of the original controversial 1969 "Harvard Educational Review" article, 5 related articles by Jensen, and a bibliography of related articles. (EH)

Reviewed are findings in the literature of racial differences in intelligence which are consistent in revealing "real differences in test performance between Negroes and whites." The interpretation that these racial differences are due to cultural bias in the tests is denied. A discussion of the genetic vs. environmental etiology of the differences notes that the fundamental issue should be the relative effectiveness of various educational procedures which might reduce racial differences in ability, if in fact they are due to certain environmental factors. Also mentioned are the reported socioeconomic, geographic, and individual differences which must be considered in educational research and practice oriented toward equal educational opportunity. (NH)