A goal of increased effectiveness of teacher-student communication led to the development and validation of an 18-item scale, RAM, which classified subjects into categories of Relative, Absolute, and Mixed relative-absolute philosophical orientation to the nature of reality. After three pilot studies using a total of 202 subjects, RAM was administered to 261 community college students. The results were correlated with the students' grade point average, the number of classes dropped in the prior two semesters, life-time job preference for security versus challenge, preference for minimal tension in an educational system, and teacher-centered versus personal-centered factors involved in dropping classes. Statistically significant findings indicated that RAM reliably differentiated between the three philosophical positions, that students classified as absolute and mixed preferred minimal educational system tension, and that student-centered characteristics were more important than teacher-centered factors in dropping classes. Philosophical categories were found to be unrelated to grade point average, incidence of dropping classes, and life-time job characteristics. (RT)