The purposes of this study were to investigate the impact of the following factors on the decline of average SAT scores between 1952 and 1981: (1) changes in composition of population of the SAT takers after 1963, (2) aggregate technological and social changes related to the scores in the years following 1970, and (3) selected economic factors in the period 1952 through 1981. Two models were used to test the hypotheses of this study. The dependent variables of each model were the SAT Verbal and Math scores. The independent variables of the study were two intervention variables that represented changes following 1963 and after 1970. Also, three economic variables were subjected to principal component analysis. These were changes in unemployment, Consumer Price Index (CPI), and real Gross National Product (GNP). The results were two factors: (1) Economic Instability (combination of unemployment and CPI), and (2) Economic Growth. These two factors were used as independent variables in addition to the interventions of 1963 and 1970. The interaction of these variables were calculated. The Box-Jenkins technique was used to generate residuals which were white noise (free from the confounding of autoregression, moving average, and trend or stochastic drift). Finally, hierarchical multilinear regression technique was used to analyze the white noise data of the study.

Self-efficacy is a person's own perception about performing a task with a certain level of proficiency (Bandura, 1986). An important affective aspect of learning chemistry is chemistry self-efficacy (CSE). Several researchers have found chemistry self-efficacy to be a fair predictor of achievement in chemistry. This study was done in a college preparatory chemistry class for science majors exploring chemistry self-efficacy and its change as it relates to achievement. A subscale of CAEQ, Chemistry Attitudes and Experiences Questionnaire (developed by Dalgety et al, 2003) as well as student interviews were used to determine student chemistry self-efficacy as it changed during the course. The questionnaire was given to the students five times during the semester: in the first class and the class before each the four tests taken through the semester. Twenty-six students, both men and women, of the four major races/ethnicities were interviewed three times during the semester and events that triggered changes in CSE were followed through the interviews. HLM (hierarchical linear modeling) was used to model the results of the CSE surveys. Among the findings, women who started at significantly lower CSE than men accomplished a significant gain by the end of the semester. Blacks' CSE trends through the semester were found to be significantly different from the rest of the ethnicities.