The predictability from instructor evaluations of incarcerated vocational students to post-release adjustment to the world of work

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the ratings of inmate students by vocational instructors could be used to predict the post-release adjustment to work of those students. Direction was provided to the study by four research questions. 1. Does the performance of an inmate student in a training setting, as rated by his instructor, indicate how well he will perform after release? 2. Are exhibited attitudinal traits of students while incarcerated related positively to certain behavior in the community? 3. Are the events that occur during a student/teacher relationship pertinent to the performance of the student after the relationship has ended? 4. Will the data collected during training emerge from a prediction analysis strong enough to foretell future events? Data for the study were elicited from a follow-up study conducted by the Windham School District of the Texas Department of Corrections. Subjects were former students of vocational education programs who had been released from confinement and had returned to the community. Seven predictor variables were developed from teacher evaluations of students. Eleven criterion variables were selected from questionnaires returned by ex-students during the follow-up study, 1974-1975. The individual variables were subjected to factor analysis. Two independent factors and two dependent factors emerged from the analysis. The factors were entered into a multiple regression analysis with prediction evident for one dependent factor, that of "work history." After considering the analysis of the results and observations made during the study it was concluded that the future work, status of students being related to training was not predictable..