The Prediction of Academic Performance

This 1965 report serves as a guide to the extensive research literature concerned with the prediction of student performance. In his analysis, David Lavin reviews and evaluates research covering more than three hundred sources on elementary and high school, college, and graduate schools. The book presents a discussion of the various criteria of academic performance and several methodological problems such as standardized predictor measures and interpreting relationships between predictors and performance. The findings cover four broad categories of performance determinants: intelligence and ability factors, personality characteristics, sociological determinants, and socio-psychological factors. Each of these categories is carefully scrutinized in terms of a number of theoretical and methodological issues. It indicates several areas for possible investigation and concludes with a plea for a broader context in which to evaluate performance and apply new knowledge.

David E. Lavin was assistant professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania.