How Colleges Can Correctly Determine Selection Benefits from the SAT

Abstract

Since its inception in 1927, the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) has been used by increasing numbers of colleges in the admissions process. In this article, James Crouse and Dale Trusheim argue that the selection benefits colleges derive from using the SAT in their admissions decisions are minimal. They support this argument through a discussion of the prediction equation, supplemental table of predicted grades, and expectancy table currently used by the College Board's Validity Study Service (VSS) to assess the selection benefits of the SAT for individual colleges. Crouse and Trusheim present an analysis of the added information gain from SAT scores, as well as an alternative method for colleges to assess their selection benefits from the SAT. The authors illustrate their method by using Dartmouth College as a case study. Crouse and Trusheim then call for the inclusion of two additional tables in the VSS presentation to college administrators: the Crosstabulation of Predicted Grades Table and the College Outcomes Table. The Crosstabulation of Predicted Grades Table would allow college administrators to identify the level of redundancy in predicted freshman admissions for their particular institution based on high school GPA alone, compared with those based on high school GPA plus SAT scores. The College Outcomes Table would allow college administrators to estimate the impact their use of the SAT actually has on predicting several different student performance outcomes, such as average grades of admitted students, the percentage of admitted students with freshman GPAs above 2.5, and the percentage of admitted students who graduate.