Hispanic high school graduates have lower college completion rates than academically similar white students. As Hispanic students have been theorized to be more constrained in the college search and selection process, one potential policy lever is to increase the set of colleges to which these students apply and attend. In this paper, we…

Helping raise the Hispanic college graduation rate is an urgent goal, given the persistently high rate of poverty among Hispanic families, growth of the Hispanic population to account for one in five college-age Americans, and mounting concerns about racial and economic inequality. The question is, how? One potential strategy involves helping high…

On the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessments, the attainment of performance level 4 is intended to indicate college readiness or being "on track" to college and career readiness. Students who achieve Level 4 should have a 0.75 probability of attaining at least a C in entry-level,…

Historically, AP Potential™ has used PSAT/NMSQT® scores to identify students who are likely to earn a 3 or higher on a specific AP® Exam--based on research showing moderate to strong relationships between PSAT/NMSQT scores and AP Exam scores (Camara & Millsap, 1998; Ewing, Camara & Millsap, 2006; Zhang, Patel & Ewing, 2014a). For most…

Hispanic high school graduates have lower college completion rates than academically similar white students. As Hispanic students have been theorized to be more constrained in the college search and selection process, one potential policy lever is to increase the set of colleges to which these students apply and attend. In this paper, we…

This report presents a methodology for the creation of a PSAT/NMSQT test score benchmark to identify students who are on track toward college readiness when completing high school. The proposed benchmark could create useful early indicators of whether students in grades 10 and 11 are on track to be college ready upon high school graduation. Two…

This report describes the results of two studies designed to evaluate the impact of self-reported mathematics course-taking on performance on SAT mathematics questions measuring new content (Algebra II). A supplemental table and figure are appended.

This norms study, initiated to aid in score interpretation, is designed to provide current information on Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) scores of a national sample of high school juniors. Earlier national norms were developed on the basis of tests administered in 1960 and 1966. The…

Each year over one million high school students complete the SAT[superscript R] I. Information on repeat testing and the probability that a student's SAT I score will change may help students and educators make better-informed decisions about retesting. This information would also be useful for high school counselors who advise students regarding…

Data are presented concerning the numbers of students taking the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) and the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), and their mean scores for the period 1959 through l976. The implications of these results in relation to changes in the candidate group…

This study investigated the impact on ethnic, language, and gender groups of a new kind of essay prompt type intended for use with the new SAT®. The study also generated estimates of the reliability of scores obtained using the prompts examined. To examine the impact of a new prompt type, random samples of eleventh-grade students in 49…

The Halstead/Bentley Public School District in south-central Kansas has a long, successful history of administering a comprehensive evaluation program of achievement, scholastic aptitude, and interest tests and inventories in grades K-12. The PSAT/NMSQT (Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test) is an…