An Analysis of the Scores of Eighth-Grade Pupils and Normal School Students on Certain Objective Tests

Abstract

For a number of years the State Normal School at Bellingham has administered a bat tery of tests to its entering students. This battery of entrance tests includes the Thorn dike Intelligence Examination for High School Graduates, and a test in each of the follow ing fields: arithmetic computation, arith metic reasoning, English usage, spelling, geography, history and penmanship. All of these tests except the Thorndike Intelli gence Examination and the penmanship tests have been prepared by the Bureau of Research of the State Normal School at Bellingham. These tests have not been published and great care is taken that no copy is left in the hands of the students. Care is taken to pre vent direct coaching. The arithmetic computation and reason ing tests are similar in f orm and content to the tests of the same name in the New Stan ford Achievement Test. The English usage test includes four sections: Punctuation, Good Use, Grammar, and Sentence Structure. The first, second, and fourth sections re quire a decision in regard to the Tightness or wrongness of the sentences presented. The section on grammar is divided into two parts. Part A tests recognition of correct verb forms and Part B requires the naming of parts of speech presented in sentences. The his tory test samples the subject of American history and the geography test samples the field of geography. The number of equiva lent forms, number of items, working times and reliabilities are given in Table I. In arithmetic computation, arithmetic reasoning, English usage, and spelling, a specified grade must be attained before the students are allowed to do their practice tea.ching. The upper limit of this grade is equivalent to the score which is one-half sigma below the mean score of the group which enters the institution for the first time in the fall quarter. In penmanship the Ayres Scale is used for which norms have been established upon the basis of the achievement of entering students. Students who fail on the penmanship test must take a course in this subject. No standards are set for geography and history, and no re tests are required in these fields. The main problems of this study are: 1. In what direction and how signifi cant are the differences between the scores made by the eighth-grade pupils on the tests and the scores made on these same tests by students entering the Normal School? 2. In what direction and how signifi cant are the differences between the scores made by the eighth-grade pupils and the scores made by Normal School students two weeks before their graduation? 3. In what direction and how signifi cant are the differences between the scores of students upon entrance to the Normal School and at the end of six quarters of at tendance? 4. What gain in score on the entrance tests is made by the graduating class during their six quarters of attendance in the Bellingham Normal School? 5o What changes are revealed, at the completion of six quarters' work, in the variability of the scores on each of the tests administered? 6. What are the factors contributing to the gains in score made during the two-year normal course? In May, 1930, 125 students who had en tered in the fall quarter of 1928 and who were candidates for graduation in June, 1930, were retested in the same fields (with the exception of spelling and handwriting) in which they were tested upon entering the