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Indicators of eminence derived from word and citation counts in primary biographical articles in encyclopedias published at the turn of the century, in 1935, and 1974 correlate positively. 33 overall with IQ estimates made from biographical sources on a select sample of 282 philosophers, scientists, non-fiction and fiction writers, musicians, artists, religious leaders, statesmen, revolutionaries, and soldiers. These results are striking since the sample is restricted to the higher end of the eminence distribution; the mean estimated IQ for the total group is 158.9. Indicators of eminence for some fields-philosophers, musicians, and artists--vary from one period to the next. Individuals also shift in estimated eminence during the three time periods examined.

Concerned with the need for documenting the effects of instructional method on reading achievement, Huey, after the turn of the century (1908), wrote "we have thus far been content with trial and error, too often allowing the publishers to be our jury, and a real rationalization of the process of inducting the children into the practice of reading has not been made. . . . We have come to the place where we need to pass in review all the methods that have been tried in all the centuries of reading and to learn any little that we can from each" (p. 9). Some 70 years later, in discussing investigations of different instructional methods, Farr and Roser (1979) concluded, "Regardless of the quantity of research, however, there are no definitive answers to the question of the best program because the results of various studies support different programs, and nothing conclusive can be shown about which programs are superior" (p. 426). That nothing conclusive has resulted from the research on instructional methods is reflected in other texts written for teachers of reading; for example, Durkin (1974), Fry (1977), Mangrum and Forgan (1979), and others concluded that few important differences between methods

To test the cross-cultural generalizability of measures of student perception of the social enviornment of learning and an operationalization of the social environment of learning and an operationalization of a three-factor theory of the social-psychological properties of small groups (Moos-Bales), the mean end-of-course achievement scores of 166 groups of studious and nonstudies members of 83 general science classes randomly sampled in the State of Rajasthan, India, were regressed on group perception of affect, task orientation, and competitveness (derived from scales of the Learning Enviornment Inventory, LEI, translated into Hindi) and control variables–school and teacher characteristics, and student IQ sex, and socioeconomic status. Nine variables selected for unique contribution to accountable variance in achievement included the four perceptual factors, produced a multiple correlation R of .86, and a cross-validated R of .83 in an independent sample of 67 social studies casses.

To test the cross cultural generalizability of measures of student perception of the social environment of learning, the mean end-of-course achievement scores of 166 groups of studious and non-studious members of 83 general science classes and 134 similar groups in 67 social studies classes randomly sampled in the State of Rajasthan, India were correlated with IQ and the 15 scales of the Learning Environment Inventory, (LEI, translated into Hindi). With IQ controlled, the median partial correlations of perception and achievement are .43 for general science and .58 for social studies. Multiple regression analysis shows that the LEI scales account for substantial achievement variance beyond that accounted for by IQ.

Multiple group discriminant analysis was employed to determine the utility of preenrollment traits and academic performance in identifying freshman students who persisted, stopped out, or withdrew early from an urban, nonresidential university. An equation based on nine preenrollment variables significantly discriminated among the three groups and correctly identified 48.1% of an independent validation sample (p

This paper illustrates cut-and-try techniques that point to appropriate transformations of variables and to the selection of sets of variables for an equation that may improve understanding of a social process. The substance of the research reported — the relation of mental test results to state population, cultural, and school resource indexes (Walberg and Rasher, 1974) — illustrates typical problems of behavioral data: multi-colinearity, outliers, abnormal distributions, and the lack of a consensually-validated, explicit theoretical model. Despite these problems, data originally collected for purposes other than the investigator’s may yield tentative confirmations or cautions about prior findings and provisional indications for theory or policy; such inferences may be at least partially checked by cross-validation on independent or semi-independent sets of data. After discussing the sequence of analyses and the results, we conclude by mentioning a number of uncertainties and reservations about drawing substantive or policy implications.

We examined changes in food-choice behavior, nutrition knowledge, and attitudes of junior and senior high school students in a three-year national study of nutrition education integrated into home economics, health, science, and social studies. Key findings useful in understanding the impact of nutrition education on adolescent food choices were that 1) study participants' nutrition knowledge improved, 2) their attitudes toward nutrition—positive before instruction—became more positive, and 3) their intentions to include more high-nutrient foods in their diet increased significantly. Our results suggest that teacher experience and commitment to nutrition education are important factors in influencing teenagers to change food consumption patterns in positive directions. Variables in the school setting most closely related to positive change included support from within the school system and from external forces encouraging the teaching of nutrition. Also important to policy makers are the findings that nutrition education for adolescents can be effective under a broad range of conditions.

Observations of time usage and teachers statements were made in 175 classrooms in twenty-six high schools in Chicago. The measures of time were combined into one variable that was then tested for its association to the achievement scores of the eleventh grade class. The correlation showed that schools with higher reading achievement had a lower amount of lost time. Regression models showed that better use of time and more use of positive comments were each associated with increases in achievement. The low use of reinforcing comments by teachers and the high proportions of student time lost through absences, interruptions, and noninvolvement were cited as areas that could be affected by school policies.

This article provides a brief overview of validity and reliability as concepts related to the overall quality of test instruments. We describe the nature and interpretation of content, face, criterion, and construct validity and identify several approaches for measurement and improvement of reliability. We urge that test developers, users, and interpreters recognize the characteristics of good instruments as well as the limitations of measurement instrumentation.

Self-ratings of English fluency of 352 Japanese students who lived from 0 to 12 years in Japan and 0-12 years in the United States and ratings of English competence made by American teachers of an over-lapping sample of 360 students were regressed on linear and logarithmic forms of numbers of months lived in the U.S. and in Japan, and their product. A simple regression of the ratings on the log of months in the U.S. yields Rs of from .52 to .62 which are generally not increased significantly by additional terms. The hypothesis of special competence of young children for language acquisition is unsupported. The rate of acquisition, however, diminishes with time in this country in children of all ages in the sample.

pact of their writing on the field; and citation counts provide an admittedly imperfect index but one that has shown validity in predicting Nobel prizes and other recognitions of eminence (Wade, 1976). The primary question addressed here is whether the relation between eminence and citation holds in educational psychology. Since 1969, the Institute for Scientific Information (1975) has annually listed all writing that has been cited in a large sample of educational, psychological, and social science journals published during the year. The list includes the name of the cited author and reference in