Grade inflation is causing student's hard work to be undervalued. As high grades get easier and easier to achieve, the highest grades can only go up so far. The difference between excellent and decent is compressed. Everybody wins is a system that guides and shapes the mindset of most American students--except a small number of kids who lose out…

Although studies on test anxiety are abundant in the research literature, there are few investigations of the relationship of stress to academic achievement. To test the hypothesis that maladaptive methods of coping with stress are related to academic achievement in greater magnitude than the relationship of Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores,…

Although there is a large body of research on the effectiveness of supplemental instruction for college undergraduates, very little of it has focused on transfer students, who often confront additional sources of stress and historically perform more poorly than their native student counterparts. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of…

The current investigation examines profiles of postsecondary adjustment among college students with disabilities. Students' self-perceptions of practical gains, personal gains, educational gains, their overall satisfaction with postsecondary school, and their college GPA were subjected to a latent profile analysis. Results indicated that students…

Student attrition in higher education is a pervasive problem. In this analysis, we used a longitudinal sample of nearly 10,000 university students to examine the relative importance of social, behavioral, and interpersonal factors on student retention over time. Our findings show that increased depressive symptoms, antisocial behaviors, exposure…

Teachers in the US are now considered integral to promoting students' mental health; here we report on two major challenges for educators in high achieving schools (HAS). The first involves high adjustment disturbances among students. We present data on nine HAS cohorts showing elevated rates of clinically significant symptoms relative to norms;…

It is so easy to criticize the SAT that most observers overlook the weaknesses of its architect, the College Board. This author contents that, until the latter is replaced, however, the former will never be fixed. The College Board has every incentive to create a complex, stressful, expensive college admissions system. Because it is accountable to…

The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether racial and ethnic-related stressors were associated with overall levels of perceived stress and academic performance among African American students at a historically Black college and university (HBCU). Hierarchical regression analyses were used to test racial and ethnic-related stressors…

The use of aptitude and competency testing in the public school system can have some undesired effects on students in terms of the stress and anxiety tests can impose. Adolescence is already a time in a child's life when many different pressures are coming to bear upon the psyche. Among the most undesirable consequences that can result from the…

With many of today's high school students having the opportunity to be the first in their families to attend college, parents undoubtedly feel the stress of making sure that their son/daughter is fully prepared to enter this phase of their life. Making the transition from high school to college can be overwhelming for both parents and students.…

In this study, the relationships between measures of inter- and intrapersonal resilience and mental health were examined with respect to academic persistence in college students with mental health issues. A sample of 121 undergraduate students with mental health issues was recruited from campus mental health offices offering college counseling,…

THE PURPOSE OF THIS INVESTIGATION WAS TO ISOLATE PERSONALITY TRAITS THAT ARE RELATED TO ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT INDEPENDENT OF CORRELATIONS WITH INTELLECTUAL CAPACITY AS MEASURED BY THE SCHOLASTIC APTITUDE TEST, ACADEMIC RANK AS A HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR, AND TEACHER RECOMMENDATIONS. THIS RESEARCH CENTERED ON THE CAPACITY OF THE INDIVIDUAL COLLEGE…

Using network data from 40 groups, we examine the effect of social context on the gendering of power relations. By modeling reported data on power relations as the result of a stochastic response process that may be gendered, we examine how this gendering is related to group-level contextual factors. We find that much of what appears to be a…

Questions regarding the value of standardized testing have been raised by community and school leaders, as well as parents and members of the media. Some have expressed concern that children today are placed under such pressure to perform well on standardized tests that the anxiety adversely affects performance outcomes. This study examined the…

The admissions offices of 109 large, primarily white universities returned a questionnaire on their minority admission policies for the sixth consecutive year. The median percent of new black freshmen was down to 5 percent nationally in 1974 compared to 6 percent in 1973, with the largest drops occurring in the Middle States and Western regions.…