DIFFERENCES IN SCHOOL MEANS ON THE COLLEGE BOARD'S EXPERIMENTAL TESTS OF DEVELOPED ABILITY

Abstract

ABSTRACTAn earlier Bulletin (RB‐57‐14) reported relationships between the College Board's experimental Tests of Developed Abilities and the home and school experiences of seniors at 41 secondary schools. This Bulletin is a further report on the same data; it shows that differences in mean aptitude of the students as measured by SAT‐V and SAT‐M do not account for the differences found between schools on the experimental test scores. Correlations of the tests with popularity of courses in the schools and techniques of instruction are presented with SAT‐V and SAT‐M partialled out. Popularity of science courses, especially chemistry, is associated with higher school means on the science tests than would be predicted on the basis of SAT alone. Number of students at a school taking American History in the senior year is highly related to the school's mean on the social studies tests, but the number taking other social studies courses is not related. Popularity of mathematics, language, music, and art courses tends to be negatively related to school means on the social studies tests. Certain study techniques in the social studies seem to be related to high social studies test scores for boys but not for girls. Public school students (who were also College Board candidates) did a little better on the tests than private school students.