Use of the probit model to estimate school performance in student attainment of achievement testing standards

In the USA, trends in educational accountability have driven several models attempting to provide quality data for decision making at the national, state, and local levels, regarding the success of schools in meeting standards for competence. Statistical methods to generate data for such decisions have generally included (a) status models that examine simple indications of number of students meeting a criterion level of achievement, (b) growth models that explore change over the course of one or more years, and (c) value-added models that attempt to control for factors deemed relevant to student achievement patterns. This study examined a new strategy for student and school achievement modeling that augments the field through the use of the probit model to estimate the likelihood of students meeting an established level standard and estimating the proportion of individuals within a school meeting the standard. Results of the study showed that the probit model was an effective tool both for providing such adjustments, as well as for adjusting them based upon salient demographic variables. Implications of these results and suggestions for further use of the model are discussed.     

GAS Released Again: proposals for the development of goal attainment scaling

The original proposal of Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) by Kiresuk and Sherman (1968) offered a method of evaluating services which had to set individualised goals for clients because of the diversity of their needs. The method expressed clients’ levels of achievement of their goals on a common, normative scale, thus creating a basis for quantitative evaluation. This paper recognises the attraction of GAS, but suggests that there are concerns about the calculation of its standard scores that should be added to concerns about procedures which other writers have identified. Examples are given of a different approach to the displaying of GAS data that makes fewer assumptions than does the original technique. These examples show how GAS may have a useful role in service development whether or not numerical values are attached to clients’ levels of achievement.     

Effects of goal relations on self-regulated learning in multiple goal pursuits: performance, the self-regulatory process, and task enjoyment

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of goal relations on self-regulation in the pursuit of multiple goals, focusing on self-regulated performance, the self-regulatory process, and task enjoyment. The effect of multiple goal relations on self-regulation was explored in a set of three studies. Goal relations were divided into two categories: facilitating goal relations and conflicting goal relations. A facilitating goal relation is a relationship in which the pursuit of a focal goal enhances the attainment of an additional goal, whereas a conflicting goal relation is a relationship in which the pursuit of a focal goal generates conflicts with additional goal pursuits. Specifically, Study 1 tested the general hypothesis that conflicting goals decrease self-regulatory performance, task enjoyment, and the adaptive self-regulatory process, whereas facilitating goals increase them during the performance of the focal goal task. Studies 2A and 2B tested how the extent of facilitating or conflicting relations between goals affects self-regulatory performance, the self-regulatory process, and task enjoyment during the pursuit of the focal goal. The findings of the three studies were consistent with the authors?? hypothesis that facilitating goal relations increase self-regulatory performance and the self-regulatory process, whereas conflicting goal relations decrease them. The author also discuss the implications for self-regulation, intrinsic motivation, and classroom organization.     

The school psychologist as a behavior therapist: Past and future

Using a published review of 1965 as a comparison point, this article presents an opinion on the evolution of the school psychologist as a behavior therapist (encompassing the period of 1965–1975). Over the past ten years, it was noted that the role of being an individual therapist has been replaced by the role of being a consultant to the schools and the community, that assessment of change due to behavioral interventions (while some progress has been made) is still a major problem, and that the use of behavioral methods in the educational context is screened on an individual technique basis. In terms of the future, it is posited that there will be increasing support for the use of behavior modification activities, and specific areas of preparation for the schools and colleges are suggested. Special emphasis is placed on the relationship between professionalism and public policy, particularly as relevant to the ethics inherent in the use of behavior modification.     

Self-esteem as a predictor of future school achievement

Self-esteem as a predictor of future school achievement was studied in 1253 randomly selected adolescents. Self-esteem was assessed with the Coopersmith’s Self-Esteem questionnaire when the students started a Junior or Senior High School. School achievement was measured when they graduated. Self-esteem appeared to be a valid predictor of the future grade average. From the components of self-esteem, general self-esteem and home-parents predicted the future performance while social self correlated slightly negatively with school achievement. A gender based difference was found: in boys the role of self-esteem was similar in all school stages while in girls the self-esteem was more significant in a comprehensive (i.e. compulsory) school and its role decreased in the later, voluntary schooling.     

Effects of goal structures and performance contingencies on the math performance of adolescents with learning disabilities

This study assessed the effects of assigned versus self-selected goals and contingent versus noncontingent gameplay conditions, delivered during computer-assisted math computation drill-and-practice sessions. Participants were 20 high school pupils with learning disabilities who had active Individualized Education Plan (IEP) goals that targeted the improvement of computational skills. Students were assigned randomly to goal conditions and, within goal conditions, to contingency groups. Math computation performance was measured pre-, mid-, and posttreatment. Analyses of variance indicated that students who selected their goals performed better than pupils with assigned goals. No differences existed between the contingency groups. Implications for practice are discussed.     

Effects of length of school day on kindergarten school performance and parent satisfaction

A study was conducted to assess the effects of changing the length and regularity of the kindergarten school day on prereading skills, attending skills, and parental opinion of the program. Two rural Colorado school systems were studied in a matched control-comparison design, with the experimental groups attending a full-day, every-other-day program. Results indicated there were no significant differences between the groups on measures of school achievement and behavior. However, parental dissatisfaction appeared to increase in the experimental program. There is a need for further studies of altering the length of school days for establishing policies for kindergarten schedules.     

Response deprivation and response satiation as determinants of instrumental performance: Some data and theory

Sixteen human subjects were presented with an instrumental task in which pressing a button to produce a visual stimulus was followed by an auditory stimulus. Half of the subjects were assigned to a condition under which pressing the button at the subject’s operant level produced less of the auditory stimulus than the subject would normally choose to receive. For the others, pressing the button at operant level produced more of the auditory stimulus than the subject would choose. Subjects in the former condition showed increases in instrumental performance; those in the latter showed decreases. The results indicated that the rewarding or punishing effects of an event depend upon the relation of the instrumental contingency to the subject’s unconstrained behavior.     

The influence of context-reinforcer associations on instrumental performance

In each of two experiments, rats were trained to press the lever in a Skinner box, food reinforcement being available on a variable-interval 60-sec schedule (VI 60). There followed an “exposure phase” for which the levers were removed from the boxes, and then a final test with the levers replaced to assess the effects of the intervening treatment on instrumental responding. Experiment 1 showed that simple exposure to the box reduced the vigor of instrumental performance in comparison with a condition in which food was made available during the exposure phase. Animals which received no exposure treatment also showed a relatively high rate of response. Experiment 2 demonstrated that an exposure treatment in which the occurrence of food is signaled by a light stimulus also leads to a decline in instrumental responding. These results are held to support the notion that associations between the context and the reinforcer serve to energize appetitive instrumental behavior.     

Mastery goal orientations and subjective well-being in school among elementary school students: The mediating role of school engagement

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Based on the self-system model of motivational development, we examined the mediating role of school engagement, including cognitive engagement and...     

Understanding Underachievement: an investigation into the differential attainment of secondary school pupils

This article considers the notion of ‘underachievement’ as it is applied to pupil performance in school. It argues that rather than being a straightforward concept, underachievement is one where little consensus exists over its definition and measurement. Previous work on underachievement has tended to cluster around two manifestations of the issue. On the one hand, there is the comparative notion of differential achievement—often specifically low achievement—as used in media commentaries and, on the other, there is its definition in psychological research as the discrepancy between an individual's performance on a test of mental ability a subsequent school examination. Using a stricter definition of underachievement that takes into account a range of background as well as academic variables when predicting examination performance, this paper describes the construction of a model for predicting individual performance in future Key Stage 3 examinations. Individuals whose examination performance was then significantly lower than expected were termed underachievers. The composition of this group was examined in light of existing ‘moral panics’ about underachieving working-class boys.     

Self‐efficacy,goal orientation,and fear of failure as predictors of school engagement in high school students

Lack of school engagement among adolescents in this country remains a problem that can have very serious consequences including increased risk for school dropout, substance use, teenage pregnancy, and criminal activity. Clearly, identification of psychological variables (self‐variables) of individuals that facilitate or hinder adolescents' levels of school engagement would contribute greatly to the understanding of how to increase adolescents' psychological well‐being and their achievement motivation and associated school engagement. The present study examined the degree of association of three specific self‐variables (self‐efficacy, goal orientation, and fear of failure) with school engagement for high school students. The results and implications for intervention and future research are addressed. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 40: 417–427, 2003.     

Emotional intelligence and academic attainment of British secondary school children: a cross-sectional survey

Trait emotional intelligence (trait EI) covers a wide range of self-perceived skills and personality dispositions such as motivation, confidence, optimism, peer relations and coping with stress. In the last few years, there has been a growing awareness that social and emotional factors play an important part in students’ academic success and it has been claimed that those with high scores on a trait EI measure perform better. This research investigated whether scores on a questionnaire measure of trait EI were related to school performance in a sample of British pupils. Results showed that high performing students had higher trait EI scores than low performing students and that some aspects of trait EI (motivation and low impulsivity) as well as total trait EI were significant predictors of academic achievement after controlling for prior attainment at school. Therefore, initiatives to develop the emotional and social abilities of schoolchildren might be worthwhile and more effective than concentrating solely on teaching and curriculum activities.