Numerous studies have documented a predictive relationship between ability or prior achievement levels and their high school completion. For instance, Leventhal, Graber, and Brooks-Gunn (2001) found, in an analysis of a sample of 251 African American urban children, that children with higher levels of school readiness, as measured by verbal ability and cognitive test scores at age 4-5, were more likely to graduate from high school than students with lower levels of school readiness. In an analysis of nationally representative data from the High School and Beyond survey, students with higher levels of prior academic achievement were found to be less likely to drop out of high school (McNeal, 1995). Likewise, Cairns, Cairns, and Neckerman (1989), in an analysis of youth who were from suburban metropolitan and rural communities in the South, examined the predictors of dropping out of high school on a sample of 467 seventh graders from three middle schools who participated in a follow-up evaluation in the 11th grade. They found that adolescents with low levels of academic performance in the 7th grade, as rated by teachers and school administrators, were more likely to have dropped out by the 11th grade in comparison to adolescents' with lower levels of prior academic performance (Cairns et al., 1998). Other studies have demonstrated this relationship between prior achievement and dropout (Astone and McLanahan, 1991;Weng, Newcomb, and Bentler, 1988).

Prior achievement is also associated with college attendance and completion. Borus and Carpenter (1984) found that high school seniors who had received remedial education were less likely to attend college than those who had not. Zaff, Moore, Papillo, and Williams (2001), in an analysis of a sample of 8,599 adolescents using the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS) found that prior composite reading and math test scores were predictive of increased likelihood of attending college. These studies controlled for multiple background factors.