The organization of student performance in American schools: Discipline, motivation, verbal learning, and nonverbal learning

Standardized measures of cognitive ability, academic achievement, classroom learning behavior, and school social-emotional adjustment were administere d for a nationally representative sample of 1,268 students aged 6-17 years. Exploratory and confirmatory latent structure analyses revealed 4 distinct and reliable student performance factors (Disciplined Behavior, Motivation , Verbal Learning, Nonverbal Learning) that were generalizable to age, sex, and ethnic subgroups within the national sample. The performance factors s howed substantial and consistent relationships to independent measures of s chool achievement (grades, test scores) and to observations of problem beha vior. Differential patterns for age, sex, and ethnic groups were discovered , including female superiority for disciplined behavior, verbal learning, a nd motivation, and male superiority for nonverbal learning, with unique pat tern variations for some ethnic minority students. Theoretical implications are explored.