The College Board formed a research consortium with four-year colleges and universities to build a national higher education database with the primary goal of validating the SAT®, which is used in college admission and consists of three sections: critical reading (SAT-CR), mathematics (SAT-M) and writing (SAT-W). This report builds on a body of…

A survey of the l970 class of Shippensburg State College in 1974 identified four distinct groups from the 530 survey respondents: (1) students currently in the senior year and graduating on time; (2) students who finished college in less than the usual four years; (3) students who voluntarily withdrew from college with satisfactory average grades…

The prediction of academic success of undergraduate students using an item response theory partial credit model adjusted grade point average (IRTGPA) is presented and its results are compared to those from an unweighted grade point average (GPA). The sample included 2,444 freshmen admitted in the fall of 1987 to 681 courses at a large midwestern…

In an effort to identify the minimum qualifications necessary for an entering student to succeed in a selective admission Nursing Program at Saint Petersburg Junior College in Florida, a study was conducted of 424 generic nursing students who started the program in January 1988, August 1988, January 1989, and August 1989. A successful student was…

A sample of 260 colleges was surveyed during the years 1972-1976 to determine the validity of predicting college freshmen grades from standardized test scores and high school grades using the American College Testing (ACT) Assessment Program, an evaluative and placement service for students and educators involved in the transition from high school…

This report discusses the findings of a study that gathered descriptive information in the areas of salient student characteristics (e.g., gender, ethnicity, poverty, disability classification), level of participation in general education classes, current level of functioning, student outcomes (e.g., grade point average, performance on state or…

A study was conducted to determine the optimum combination of selected social, academic, and demographic variables to maximally differentiate membership in the successful, unsuccessful, and withdrawal groups of first-year computer programming majors in Virginia community colleges. A questionnaire focusing on 18 selected variables was administered…

During the 1976 academic year the Evaluation Office continued its study of student development at Simon's Rock and of the factors that underlie successful academic and social adjustment at an early college. Included in the year's study are the characteristics of 1976 incoming students, compared with students entering in previous years, predictors…

Logical predictions about relationships between school aptitude and standardized achievement, aptitude and teachers' grades, and teachers' grades and standardized achievement can be made from the literature. These predictions are that (1) conventional school aptitude measures should predict standardized achievement test scores equally well for…

A study was conducted to determine the extent to which high school graduates from Florida's Leon County needed remediation to enter college-level mathematics, reading, and writing courses. Records were examined for 2,705 high school graduates from 1992 to 1996 who were first-time college students in a Florida public community college or state…

There is clear evidence that the average grades earned in high school have been going up for some period of time. This study examines the question of whether students of varying backgrounds have experienced similar increases in grade point average (GPA) over a 25-plus-year period. Changes in SAT verbal and mathematical scores for the same gender…

Group differences among ethnic and racial groups on a series of educational measures and outcomes are examined. African-American and Hispanic students perform substantially lower than white and Asian students on the SAT I. These substantial differences also exist on a variety of other admissions tests used for undergraduate, graduate, and…

There has been increased interest in emphasizing Achievement Tests, as SAT II: Subject Tests, for use in admission and placement. In this report, data was obtained from a comprehensive database of categorized course grades for a large number and great variety of colleges, with student groups identified. For each student group, the percentage of…

This research report is a review and analysis of all of the published studies during the past 25+ years (since 1974) in the area of differential validity/prediction and college admission testing. More specifically, this report includes 49 separate studies of differences in validity and/or prediction for different racial/ethnic groups and/or for…

In the eyes of much of the academic establishment, William Bowen and Derek Bok's "The Shape of the River" is the definitive defense of affirmative action. Released in 1998, this book, which was also sponsored by the Mellon Foundation, claimed that racial preferences at America's elite universities were crucial to the growth and maintenance of a…