Actual Academic Performance Research Articles

Predicting Academic Performance and Retention Among African American Freshmen Men

To determine academic performance and retention patterns, 229 African American freshmen men at a historically African American, private liberal arts college in the Southeast were surveyed about their adaption to college using cognitive and noncognitive measures. Predictions generated by 14 independent variables were compared to the students’ actual academic performance (i.e., grades and academic probation) and retention (i.e., staying in school). Statistically significant relationships were between high school grades, high school rank, and several noncognitive variables and students’ academic performance and retention. Suggestions for admission, extended orientation programs, and increased faculty and peer support are discussed.

Predicting Academic Performance and Retention Among African American Freshmen Men

To determine academic performance and retention patterns, 229 African American freshmen men at a historically African American, private liberal arts college in the Southeast were surveyed about their adaption to college using cognitive and noncognitive measures. Predictions generated by 14 independent variables were compared to the students’ actual academic performance (i.e., grades and academic probation) and retention (i.e., staying in school). Statistically significant relationships were between high school grades, high school rank, and several noncognitive variables and students’ academic performance and retention. Suggestions for admission, extended orientation programs, and increased faculty and peer support are discussed.

Predicting Academic Success and Retention for African-American Women in College

This study examined the academic success and retention of 213 first year, female African-American college students at a historically black, private, liberal arts college in the Southeast. The women were surveyed about their preparation and readiness for college during their first weeks on campus. Responses were then compared against actual academic performance and retention during the first year of college.

Predicting Academic Performance: The Impact of Expectancy and Needs Theory

Abstract Many approaches to the explanation/prediction of student performance have been presented in the literature. In this study, both expectancy theory and needs theory variables are used to predict college student performance—that is, overall GPA. The average valence variable from the expectancy theory model was found to be the best overall predictor of actual academic performance. Although exhibiting low internal reliability measures, need for autonomy scores were also found to be highly explanatory. Need for achievement was unexpectedly not a significant predictor of actual performance for this student group.

Agency, control, and means€nds beliefs about school performance in Moscow children: How similar are they to beliefs of Western children?

This study examined the development of school performance-related beliefs and their link with actual academic performance in Moscow children (Grades 2-6, N=55l) using the Control, Agency and Means-Ends Interview (CAMI). Results revealed much intercultural convergence with Western samples, coupled with context-specific variations. Similarities involved (a) the CAMI factor structure, (b) the correlational nexus between beliefs and performance, (c) the developmental trends, and (d) the configuration of means-ends beliefs. Differences involved beliefs about teachers and ability, and gender differences, favoring girls, in the agency and control beliefs. In general, Moscow children displayed a Westernlike view of the causes of school performance and of themselves as being agentic and capable of personal control over their performance outcomes. When considering the development of self-related cognition, such as self-ascribed potential for academic achievement (e.g., self-efficacy and control beliefs), one could easily suggest that major differences should exist between children schooled in Western versus non-Western societies. These societies are thought to be characterized by substantially different views of the self, associated, for instance, with predominantly individualistic versus predominantly collectivistic orientations, respectively (Berman, 1990; Hofstede, 1991; Meyer, 1988; Triandis, 1989). By assuming, however, profound differences between Western and non-Western views of the self (e.g., by ascribing the self-efficacious, internally controlled individual to the standards of Western societies only), we may be underestimati ng possible similarities in certain domains, such as schooling. The issue is far from being fully examined in empirical studies. We do not know, for example, how much children from different sociocultural contexts diverge, if at all, in their beliefs related to school performance.

Mothers' Accuracy in Predicting Their Children's IQs: Its Relationship to Antecedent Variables, Mothers' Academic Achievement Demands, and Children's Achievement

Abstract How accurate are mothers in judging their children's IQs? Is there a relationship between mothers' accuracy and their children's academic achievement? Are mothers' beliefs about their children's cognitive ability related to the achievement demands mothers place on their children and their children's actual academic performance? To answer these questions, we administered to 70 grade-school children the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R), and their mothers were asked to estimate their children's IQs. Eighty percent of the mothers gave estimates within one standard deviation of their children's IQs. Most mothers overestimated their children's IQs. Accuracy in predicting child's IQ did not vary as a function of the child's gender or age, mother's level of education or experience with children, or family's SES. The type of errors (overestimations or underestimations), however, varied by IQ. Accuracy did not predict the children's achievement or school grades, but the mothers' de...

Structure and Semantic Differential Placement of Specific Causes: Academic Causal Attributions by Chinese Students in Hong Kong

The present study explored the structure and dimensional meaning of causal attributions for actual academic performance. Chinese high school students were asked to rate the importance as well as dimensional meaning (along locus, controllability, stability, and globality dimensions) of thirteen specific causes. A principal components analysis of the importance ratings generated four factors among which three were loaded on partially overlapping dimensions and the fourth was unrelated to any dimension. Results also revealed that effort, interest in study, study skill, and ability in study shared common characteristics in that they were the most important causes and were very internal, controllable, stable, and global. The findings were discussed in terms of socio‐cultural values in the Chinese culture.

Criterion-related validity of the WRAT-R and K-TEA with teacher estimates of actual classroom academic performance

Criterion-related validity of the WRAT-R and K-TEA with teacher estimates of actual classroom academic performance

The test-taking expectations scale: Psychometric properties and relations with test anxiety

The present research examined the psychometric properties of the Test-Taking Expectations Scale (TTES), an individual difference measure of unrealistic test-taking expectations. The present research also examined the relations among a revised measure and (a) Sarason's (1984) multi-component test-anxiety measure, (b) academic performance as indexed by actual course grades, and (c) verbal ability as indexed by scores on a vocabulary measure. Reliability and factor analyses employing initial and cross-validation samples revealed that four TTES items have low item-total correlations. The revised TTES, compared to the original measure, was found to be internally consistent, more factorially ‘pure’, and strongly correlated with test anxiety, particularly with tension and worry components. Although the revised TTES did not correlate significantly with measures of academic performance and vocabulary ability, regression analyses showed that the test anxiety and vocabulary measures did predict actual academic performance.

Type A behavior, academic aspirations, and academic success.

This study investigated the link between the Type A coronary-prone behavior pattern and attainment of success in an academic setting. First semester college freshman were administered 3 sets of questionnaires during the course of the fall semester that were designed to assess academic activities, outside responsibilities, and importance of academic success. Indices of actual academic performance were obtained from university records. The hypotheses that Type A students (1) would be involved in more activities, (2) place greater importance on academic success, and (3) actually achieve higher performance levels than Type B students, were confirmed. In addition, the results found that compared to Type B, the Type A students perceived more parental pressure, came from higher SES families, and were more clear as to what was expected of them. Implications for further research are discussed.

The impact of western schools on girls' expectations: a Togolese case.

This in-depth study of a government secondary school located in the capital of Togo focuses on whether students internalize teachers' attitudes, classroom interaction messages, and the messages implicit in the school's authority structure. The study was conducted in order to obtain a clearer understanding of the school's ability to affect female role expectations. Data from a sample population of elementary school girls were also analyzed to determine how increased exposure to Western schools affects attitudes and expectations. The secondary school under consideration had failed to fully meet the government's guidelines for sexual equality in education, but girls did make up a significant part of the school population (44% of the student body). In both the school's administrative structure and its actual teacher assignment roster there appeared to be definite patterns of sex-role stereotyping with men holding most positions of responsibility and authority in the teaching staff and school administration. The staffing pattern of the school meant that students had less contact with female teachers. A questionnaire was administered to determine whether teachers' and student/teacher interactions were consistent with the staffing pattern. The teaching staff was found to have little regard for the ability, character, or potential of their female students. These images appeared not to have been shaped by the actual academic performance or behavior of the students. Teachers' expectations of their female students projected careers were appreciably different from those they held for thier male students. A series of classroom observations over several months revealed the following: 1) the degree to which the teacher can effectively transmit values and expectations is severely hampered by the formal classroom procedure which limits teacher/student interactions of any kind; and 2) although the girls interacted to a lesser degree than the boys, the quality of the interactions appeared equal, if not better, than that of the male students. Interviews with students suggested 2 factors that might be directly affecting the discrepancy between teacher and student expectations: a declining respect for the role of teacher as exposure to school increases; and a high degree of awareness of and interest in careers outside the school environment.

Extraversion-Introversion and Self-Rated Academic Success

It was hypothesized that students' view of themselves as academically successful or unsuccessful is influenced by their personalities and also their actual academic performance. Three groups of 209 and 101 Iranian and 128 Turkish students ( n = 438) were given Eysenck's Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Psychoticism Inventory, appended with the test item, “Do you regard yourself as an academically successful student?.” Subjects scoring high and low on extraversion were, respectively, classified as extraverts and introverts, separately for each of the three samples. Comparison of extraverts' and introverts' self-ratings of academic success showed that the number of extraverts rating themselves ‘successful’ was consistently higher in each of the groups compared, lending some support to the above hypothesis.

Effects of age, sex, and physical attractiveness on child-peer relations, academic performance, and elementary school adjustment.

Effects of age, sex, and physical attractivenss for fourth- (n =56, 61% male) and sixth-grade (« =48, 50% male) children's (94% white) actual and perceived social, personal, and academic development were assessed. Subjects physical attractiveness was rated by 97 adults who viewed standardly posed photographs of them. Teachers rated subjects for academic ability and adjustment. Actual academic performance was indexed by grade point averages. Actual adjustment was measured through subsections of the California Test of Personality. Positive and negative peer relations scores were derived from peer nominations. Results were that physical attractiveness was positively related to positive peer relations, teachers' appraisals of academic ability and adjustment, and was negatively related to negative peer relations. Evidence was found for relations among physical attractiveness, grade point average, and actual adjustment. No sex or grade effects obtained. Organismic developmental notions, specifying how a child's physical attributes provide a basis of his own development, were discussed.

The Role of Generalized and Specific Expectancies in Determining Academic Achievement

Summary The purpose of the present study was to examine the relation of generalized and specific expectancies to actual academic performance. Thirty-five female and 28 male fifth and sixth graders completed Nowicki-Strickland locus of control scales and Rotter Level of Aspiration Board procedures. Results indicated that those who perceived themselves to be internally controlled or those who used immediate experience on the Rotter board to form accurate expectancies of future performance on this board achieved more than their counterparts. These results were taken as supportive of conceptualizing achievement in expectancy terms.