SAT I: Reasoning Test scores, combined with high school grades, result in more accurate predictions of college success than either measure alone or any other combination of two measures. Overall, there is a strong positive relationship between high school grades and SAT. In 1990, ETS conducted a study of the characteristics of different students…

Examines structural features of grade point averages (GPAs) and offers examples showing that GPAs cannot consistently determine class rank since class rank is sometimes permuted with arbitrary change of scale. Notes relativistic efforts to resolve inconsistencies are insufficient. Discusses the function of GPAs as predictors of academic…

This study assesses the impact of parent practices and knowledge of school on school success for a sample of 240 immigrant and nonimmigrant high school students and their parents. Immigrant parents from the former Soviet Union were less knowledgeable about and had less contact with the school, and allowed less autonomy than U.S.-born parents. Some…

Colleges can gain a better understanding of their students' progress by comparing themselves to peers. Using data from Achieving the Dream: Community College Count, this issue of "Data Notes" focuses on Achieving the Dream colleges that serve high percentages of Hispanic, black, and low-income students. This analysis reveals the noteworthy result…

The purpose of the study is to examine the differential validity and prediction of the SAT using a nationally representative sample of first-year college students admitted with the revised version of the SAT. The findings demonstrate that there are similar patterns of differential validity and prediction by gender, race/ethnicity, and best…

This study examined the demographic, pre-college, environmental, and college factors that impact students' interests in and decisions to earn a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) degree among students attending a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). Results indicated that Hispanic students were well represented among STEM…

This study was conducted to determine the accuracy of the commonly cited claims that teacher certification graduates are inferior to noncertification graduates in terms of entrance and exit criteria. Popular literature and conventional wisdom have apparently influenced state legislatures to enact legislation which places limits on the professional…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of entrance examination scores, used for placement, on grading practices of teachers at Antelope Valley College (California). Correlations between students' GPA and their entrance exam scores were calculated. These were compared with correlations between grades given by 10 instructors and the…

Study to determine the criterion-related RAM scale relative to a criterion of GPA. (Author/MB)

The relative contribution of undergraduate grade point average (UGPA) and the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) to predicting academic performance in each of three years of law school was investigated. The LSAT makes its greatest contribution in early years and UGPA in later years. (Author/BW)

First-year college students' expectations about "what college is like" do not always align with their actual experiences. This study examined 31 first-year students' social and academic expectations and compared those expectations with students' experiences at the middle and end of their first year of college. Paired t tests revealed…

A broad literature base on the instructional effectiveness of intensive and semester-length courses often fails to find significant differences between the formats. Of those studies that do find differences, most suggest that intensive courses are superior. However, many of the studies are theoretically or methodologically flawed, and none…