Myron H. Dembo

Student Persistence in Community Colleges

The current study extends the research on student persistence in community colleges by investigating factors likely to influence a students decision to drop out or stay in school. Specifically, this study examined demographic, financial, academic, academic integration, and psychosocial variables and their relationship to student persistence. A sample of 427 community college students completed a 63-item survey assessing psychosocial variables (i.e., self-efficacy and goals) the academic integration variable (i.e., student-faculty interaction), and a number of background variables (i.e., demographic, financial, and academic). In addition, student retention was measured through college enrollment the following semester. Results of the study revealed that age, work hours, and financial aid influenced student persistence, but the effects diminished once multiple variables were entered into the analysis. Among all the variables, cumulative GPA was the strongest predicting variable for student persistence. Students who had higher cumulative GPAs were twice as likely to stay in college. In addition to cumulative GPA, both enrollment units and English proficiency were predicting factors. However, contrary to expectations, none of the academic integration or psychosocial variables was predictors of student persistence. Nonetheless, the study also revealed that almost all of the variables interrelate with one another. Both goals and self-efficacy were significantly correlated with cumulative GPA, which, in turn, predicted student persistence. Faculty-student interaction was also significantly correlated with enrollment units, which, in turn, predicted student persistence. Therefore, the results indicated the importance of investigating multiple factors in the effort to solve the problem of student persistence in community college.

Rethinking School Leadership Programs: The USC Ed.D. Program in Perspective

The Ed.D. program at the University of Southern California focuses on leadership in urban education. The article describes the rationale and guiding principles for the program and its design in terms of core knowledge, inquiry, signature pedagogy, concentrations, and capstone experiences. The article concludes with an assessment of our contributions to date and a set of challenges that will direct our efforts in the near future.

The Factorial Validity of Three Frequently Employed Self-Report Measures of Self-Concept

For a total sample of 280 seventh-grade students with predominantly Spanish surnames from a lower middle-class suburban community of Los Angeles and for each of two associated samples of 116 girls and 164 boys, the intercorrelations of 10 empirically derived factor scales of the Barksdale Self-Esteem Test (BSET), of 6 empirically based factor scales of the Piers-Harris Childrens Self Concept Scale (PHCSCS), and of 15 a priori factor scales of the Tennessee Self Concept Scale (TSCS) were factor analyzed. The principal factors analysis was followed by varimax rotation. The identification of six factor dimensions that were essentially invariant across the three groups (Sense of Effective Agency; Integration of Moral and Ethical Behavior; Integration of Self-Reliant Behavior; Personal and Social Inadequacy Accompanied by Self-Depreciation; Projection, and Hostility; Personal/Social Satisfaction; and Personal/Social Self-Confidence) gave support to the multidimensionality of the self-concept construct. Evidence of convergent validity of the three self-report measures appeared to be lacking, as most of the test score variance was unique to each measure (method). The essential specificity of variance to each of the three measures (or the subscales of each test), which was apparent from the relatively low intercorrelations of the three tests as well as of their subscales, could not point to an inference of the presence of discriminant validity, as an alternative interpretation of the existence of methods variance associated with the properties of a given instrument (i.e., item format, response sets, or conditions of administration unique to each test) would appear quite plausible.

Changing Academic Task Persistence through a Self-Instructional Attribution Training Program.

Abstract The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether a self-instructional method of attribution training could effectively alter both academic task persistence and effort attributions for success and failure. Ninety children with low-effort attributions were identified and randomly assigned to three groups. The two experimental groups (experiential and formal presentation) were given training with two slightly different self-instructional procedure and compared to a control group receiving no such training. The results revealed that both experimental groups receiving the self-instructional attribution training evidenced significant differences from the control group in both academic task persistence and effort attribution.

Causal Attributions for Student Performance Effects of Teachers' Conceptual Complexity

The purpose of this study, was to determine whether differences in conceptual complexity are related to the tendency of preservice teachers to make ego-defensive attributions for student performance under success or failure conditions. It was hypothesized that concrete individuals would make more ego-defensive attributions than abstract individuals and abstract individuals would make more nondefensive attributions than concrete individuals. The data support the hypotheses only for attributions regarding student ability and motivation.

The relationship of father absence and antisocial behavior to social egocentrism in adolescent mexican american females

This study investigated the relationship of family structure (father absence and intact) and the level of antisocial behavior (high and low) to social egocentrism in adolescent Mexican American females. The results indicated that high antisocial females had significantly higher egocentrism scores than low antisocial females. No main effect was found for family structure. A significant interaction was found between antisocial behavior and family structure, indicating that the high antisocial-father absent group had the highest egocentrism scores among the four groups.

Examining the Capstone Experience in a Cutting-Edge Ed.D. Program

The culminating or capstone experience of the Ed.D level student has traditionally been a product that verifies the ability to conduct research at the doctoral level. Historically, this requirement means that the student conduct original research in the form of a dissertation. The University of Southern California, however, has framed the capstone experience in our professional doctoral program so as to enhance the work of our Ed.D. students as leaders of practice. In this chapter, we will frame the theory of such an approach to the capstone experience, describe the program context and program design at USC for our approach, present desired student learning outcomes for the capstone, and analyze two case examples at USC of our capstone experience.

The effect of verbalization of relevant and Irrelevant dimensions on discrimination-shift learning

This study explored both the effects of mixed verbalization on shift learning and the possible prepotent stimulus dimensions for 7-year-old children. Significant main effects were found for reversal and nonreversal shifts (p lt.05) and discrimination variables (p lt.05). Although no significant interaction was found, the data indicated that during transfer learning, verbalization of both dimensions facilitated the acquisition of a size discrimination to a greater extent than a brightness discrimination.

Formative Evaluation of Desegregation Assistance

The project will run until September 1983 and is divided into three phases. In the first phase, groundwork for state-to-state transfer will be laid. A conceptual framework for monitoring-the purposes and generic functions-will be developed and the transfer process will be defined. In addition, work will begin on a generic monitoring tool which can be adapted to the structures and environments of the consortium. A major emphasis will be placed on developing members’ capabilities to serve as &dquo;consultants&dquo; to other states in the transfer process. In Phase II, the consortium will expand to include other states

Team learning: Implications for the classroom teacher and school psychologist

Abstract The authors state that the school psychologists handling of behavioral and academic problems may be improved if more attention were directed to various instructional methods which would bring him into greater contact with normal classroom activities. Team learning could be used jointly by the classroom teacher and school psychologist toward this goal.