In this article, the author argues that traditional college entrance requirements exercise a detrimental effect on other elements of the educational system. She begins by looking at the way that the entire K-12 system is skewed toward meeting the needs of those students headed for selective colleges and universities and the way less successful…

Using data on applicants to three selective colleges and an optimal search model, the impact of admission policies on applicants' retaking the Scholastic Assessment Test was assessed. The most common score-ranking policy encourages retakes, disadvantaging those with high test-taking costs, pessimistic self-beliefs, or low impressions of the value…

As the Aimhigher programme is a targeted initiative, partnerships have to find ways of locating groups that are under-represented in higher education (HE) and selecting participants for interventions. If the selection criteria are not robust, resources will be misdirected, while overly narrow indicators can exclude legitimate participants and risk…

As a counselor at Montclair High School (New Jersey) for the past eleven years, the author worries about the best and the brightest of U.S. high school students who are suffering from anxiety, depression, anorexia and panic attacks. The author suspects that the common thread among these students is the obsessive desire to obtain admission to the…

Standardized tests will continue to be useful tools in selective admissions, but auxiliary services of such agencies as the College Board, which allows persons to systematically plan, manage, and evaluate operations, may well be the means of survival in the 80s. (Author)

Investigated extent to which public flagship universities use weighted or unweighted standards in admission decision process. Findings from 91 universities indicated that nearly one-half of the flagship universities used exclusively unweighted standards in decision process for most entering freshmen, suggesting that recognition of honors courses…

With only a small number of their students coming from families with the lowest incomes (10% from the bottom two family income quintiles), the nation's most selective private colleges and universities need to know why. Two ready ideological answers are (1) that low-income high-ability students are being excluded in order to favor the children of…

Objective: To identify those factors that influence freshmen application to Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP)-accredited undergraduate ATEPs having a secondary admissions process. (All undergraduate ATEPs are now accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE)). Design and…

Explores how the focus on class rank has affected students from star public high schools, creating a disadvantage when students try to enter elite colleges. Explains a new approach, "winner-take-all," being utilized in high schools in which schools focus on the top students. Includes references. (CMK)

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has approached the problem of the amount and flexibility of college entrance requirements from the point of view of both the college and the high school, particularly urging upon the college that low and uncertain entrance requirements constitute one of the chief causes of college…

Describes Open Meadow Learning Center (Portland, Oregon), a private alternative high school with a long waiting list and a probationary period for new students. School features include an advocacy role for teachers that strengthens teacher/student relationships, 80% attendance requirement, safe and supportive environment, environmental…

Although a number of large-scale studies have demonstrated an increase in predictive validity when SAT® scores are added to high school grades, this increment is often described in terms of a seemingly very small increase in explained variance. This may have led to the erroneous belief among test critics and others that students with low SAT…

Examines effects of tracking in high schools under different structural settings (selectivity, electivity, inclusiveness, and scope), using data for 20,762 students in 805 public and 78 Catholic high schools. Schools vary significantly in the magnitude of track effects on mathematics and verbal achievement. Catholic schools' tracking structures…

Like many other countries in Central and Eastern Europe, children in Slovakia are allocated to different types of schools at an early age based upon their perceived aptitude. Part of the selection process includes an attempt to identify those children who are particularly academic-oriented. Primary and secondary education in Slovakia is divided…

This study outlines and evaluates the admissions policies and procedures devised for evaluating applicants to the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanities. The procedures utilized a holistic file review process that required applications to be evaluated in the context of their local regions. Complete student files, which included…