AN EVALUATION OF A KIT TO PREPARE HISPANIC STUDENTS FOR THE PSAT/NMSQT

Abstract

ABSTRACTA collaborative effort to improve access to college for Hispanic youth on the part of the College Board, Educational Testing Service (ETS), and the Hispanic Higher Education Coalition resulted in a test‐familiarization pilot kit titled Preparing for the PSAT/NMSQT for Hispanic High School Students. The kit contains practice tests for the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, 22 lesson plans that cover test‐taking skills, and a review of selected mathematics and English grammar concepts. The kit was designed to facilitate formal instruction by counselors and teachers at the junior and senior high school levels. It can also be used in college recruitment programs to help disadvantaged students prepare for other college admissions tests like the SAT. The current version is now titled Testskills: For Teachers of Hispanic Students.This report is meant to provide some modest information about students' and teachers' reactions to a pilot version of the kit. In addition to describing the kit and how it was used in a number of school districts over the past year, we look at two key questions: (1) whether the test‐familiarization kit increased students' confidence and lessened their anxiety about test‐taking, and (2) whether the kit increased the likelihood that students would take the PSAT/NMSQT.The project outlined here was not intended to be a rigorous experimental evaluation of how the kit affected student attitudes or posttreatment test scores. An evaluation of this nature would require control groups and standardized instruction across sites. In the present project, it was not possible to control design of the programs or how the kit was used.Most targeted school districts were in California, where recent legislation (the Tanner Act) provided funding for demonstration sites to help disadvantaged students become more familiar with college admissions tests. These districts designed their own programs and, in addition to using the kit, incorporated other activities related to test preparation. Thus, it was not possible to separate the effects of the kit from the effects of the other activities. Therefore, the emphasis of this evaluation is on perceptions of the extent to which the kit was helpful. This information may have some value for refining the kit as new editions are produced and for helping to inform potential users of ways the kit may be used most effectively.