Actual Grade Research Articles

Sex Bias in the SAT and the DTMS

Abstract Advocates of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) have asserted that the exam is not biased in favor of either sex. Yet, women's actual college grade point averages (GPAs) are substantially higher than those that would be predicted on the basis of their SAT scores. The purpose of this research was to test whether (a) the use of another standardized multiple-choice mathematics exam would produce the same sex bias in favor of men as does the SAT and (b) whether the SAT's underprediction of college performance for women is due to the fact that women major in fields that are less difficult. The results of mathematics competency testing indicated that (a) women scored significantly higher than men on a multiple-choice intermediate algebra achievement exam and (b) although the women and men tended to major in different fields, there was no significant difference in their GPAs.

Psychological determinants of health and performance: The tangled web of desirable and undesirable characteristics.

Correlations were determined for male (n = 225) and female (n = 242) college students between sets of undesirable personality traits (anxiety, stress reactivity, anger, and alienation) and desirable personality traits (instrumentality, achievement strivings, and optimism measured by the Scheier-Carver [1987] Life Orientation Test), and a series of outcome variables related to health (self-reported health complaints and health maintenance behaviors and beliefs) and academic performance (academic expectations and actual grade point average). Significant correlations were found between many of the personality variables and the outcome variables. However, partial correlations revealed different relationships for the various criteria. With other variables held constant, health complaints were related to several undesirable characteristics, whereas health maintenance behaviors and beliefs were related to several desirable attributes. Only achievement strivings made an independent contribution in both sexes to the 2 measures of academic performance. The theoretical and methodological wisdom of using measures of multiple personality constructs and outcome variables is discussed.

Psychological determinants of health and performance: The tangled web of desirable and undesirable characteristics.

Correlations were determined for male (n = 225) and female (n = 242) college students between sets of undesirable personality traits (anxiety, stress reactivity, anger, and alienation) and desirable personality traits (instrumentality, achievement strivings, and optimism measured by the Scheier-Carver [1987] Life Orientation Test), and a series of outcome variables related to health (self-reported health complaints and health maintenance behaviors and beliefs) and academic performance (academic expectations and actual grade point average). Significant correlations were found between many of the personality variables and the outcome variables. However, partial correlations revealed different relationships for the various criteria. With other variables held constant, health complaints were related to several undesirable characteristics, whereas health maintenance behaviors and beliefs were related to several desirable attributes. Only achievement strivings made an independent contribution in both sexes to the 2 measures of academic performance. The theoretical and methodological wisdom of using measures of multiple personality constructs and outcome variables is discussed.

Correspondence between Parental Reports and Children's Actual Grades

The current study examined how accurately parents report their children's grades. Parents of 316 students in Grades 3 to 5 reported their children's past academic performances in reading, writing, and mathematics. Moderate to high correlations between parents' reports and the children's actual grades indicate that parents' reports of their children's grades are reliable substitutes for school grades when those grades are unavailable. Analysis showed that children of parents who underrated, accurately rated, and overrated their children's grades did not differ significantly on measures of self-esteem, ability, and achievement. Similarly, children of parents who reported grades did not differ significantly from children of parents who did not report their grades. Researchers and educators can benefit by using parents' reports of their children's grades if actual grades are unavailable.

On Bias in Autobiographical Recall: Retrospective Adjustments following Disconfirmed Expectations

Abstract The hypothesis that people recall their behaviors and expectations in ways that increase their consistency with subsequent outcomes was tested. In a first study and a replication, Canadian students reported their preparations and expectations for an exam in an undergraduate course. Weeks later, after they had received their grades, they were unexpectedly asked to recall as accurately as possible their earlier reports. In Study 1, those whose actual grades were worse than anticipated recalled working less and expecting less satisfaction relative to their initial reports. Students whose actual grades were better than anticipated recalled expecting higher satisfaction relative to their initial reports. Similar results were obtained in Study 2. As over 90% of the students in the two studies did not receive their expected grades, these findings support the view that autobiographical recall may be generally reconstructive and potentially biased.

Attributional bias and course evaluations.

Self-serving bias, a type of attributional bias, refers to people's tendency to take credit for success and avoid blame for failure. How this affects course evaluations is tested by comparing the self-esteem model, predicting that course evaluations reflect actual grades, with the expectancy-confirmation model, predicting that evaluations reflect confirmation or disconfirmation of grade expectations. Questionnaire data were obtained from all students (N=691) in 38 classes representing 16 disciplines

Personality and Flight Training Performance

Current naval aircrew selection research typically focuses on psychomotor and cognitive abilities, but evidence from flight training attrition studies suggests that many failures may be due to personality/motivational factors. This study concerns the relationships found between elements of primary flight training performance and the results of two automated personality assessment instruments: a risk test and a pilot personality questionnaire. Both risk test measures correlated significantly with a simple pass/fail index but not with actual flight grades for either student pilots or flight officers. Several of the pilot personality scales correlated significantly with various flight training criteria but many of these were also not orthogonal to measures of the current Navy/Marine Corps aviation selection test battery, while both risk test measures were.

Conflict: The Role of Calm and Angry Parent-Child Discussion in Adolescent Adjustment

The objective of the present study was to provide information about the following aspects of the parent-adolescent conflict: (1) Who argues with whom about what in families with early-adolescent children, and (2) what is the relationship between affect in family discussion and adolescent adjustment? Sixty-nine families with an early adolescent served as subjects. Mothers, fathers, and adolescents completed a self-report measure of disagreements about 44 specific issues. Each respondent rated the degree of negative affect on a 5-point scale ranging from “calm” to “angry” for each issue that was discussed. Adolescent adjustment measures included teacher-completed assessments of cognitive competence, social competence, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems, as well as adolescent reports of depression and their actual grade point averages. The results indicated that adjustment was related positively to the number of calm discussions and negatively related to the number of angry discussions between parents and adolescent. Adjustment was also positively associated with a balance of positive and negative discussions. The foregoing results were all stronger among boys than among girls. Alternative explanations of the results are presented.

Cross-sex comparisons: A word of caution

A cross-sex difference on one variable is often hypothesized to be related to a gender difference on a second variable. However, caution should be exercised in making such comparative hypotheses. We gathered the expected and actual examination grades for 168 female and 163 male college students. As in prior research, males had higher expectancies than females (p<.05). But analysis of the intrasex regression equations indicated that the relationship of expectancies to performance was different for women than it was for men. Thus, a cross-sex difference in expectancies did not correspond to a parallel difference in grades. This finding highlights the potential hazards of making certain cross-sex comparisons, and we argue for more caution in their application.

E On d

I am writing in response to your editorial in the Nursing Standard (week ending November 19, 1988). Those of us who have been graded D are quite happy to carry out basic nursing care and not have the responsibility of running a ward. But our complaints arise when we are carrying out tasks which would redefine our actual grade as an E. As a newly qualified staff nurse I am not ashamed to be 'bottom of the pile', grade D. I feel that all nurses, when newly qualified, should be given D grades and, indeed, require that support.

友人選択と学業成績における自己評価維持機制

Relations between friend choice and school performance were examined in terms of a self-evaluation maintenance model in 59 elementary school children and 56 junior high school students. Two questionnaires measured students' ratings of their own school performance and of school performance of a friend and a distant classmate on high relevant and low relevant subjects. It was found that students perceived themselves as performing relatively better than a friend on high relevant subjects and as performing worse on low relevant subjects. These tendencies were especially marked among male students, and among elementary school children. Analyses of actual grades showed that students chose as friends those classmates whose actual grades were similar or inferior to their own on high relevant subjects and better than their own on low relevant subjects.

Adolescent personality and school and college performance: A follow-up study

This study reports correlations between the High School Personality Questionnaire and various indices of school achievement and compares the validities with prior studies. Three achievement scores are utilized: a self-report of high-school grades, a parental report of high-school grades several years after the testing, and actual college grades several years after the testing. In all cases, the results were similar and substantial, and consonant with typical values from earlier, nonlongitudinal studies.

A Cross-Validation Study of Selected Performance Measures in Predicting Academic Success among Collegiate Athletes

In recent years, the academic standards of the collegiate student athlete have become a popular subject within the sociology of sport. In January 1983, the top competitive division of the NCAA voted to make more stringent the academic standards for participants in Division I intercollegiate sports. This was known as Proposal 48, and although the vote was 2 to 1 in favor of it, much criticism was also voiced. This study examines the relationship between the American College Testing Program (ACT) and actual grade point average (GPA) for 753 male and female athletes at the University of Utah during a 10-year period. A secondary purpose was to determine the predictive validity of a predicted GPA formula (PGPA) and high school grade point average (HSGPA) as estimates of actual GPA. Other purposes were to determine the correlation of ACT, PGPA, and HSGPA with regard to gender, race, and sport. Pearson product-moment correlations were utilized to establish relationships between ACT scores, PGPA, and HSGPA with actual GPA. A multiple correlation coefficient was computed and a regression equation was established. In addition, a cross-validation was performed on the existing data. Results indicated that an equation combining ACT and HSGPA is the best predictor for Caucasians, while HSGPA alone is the best predictor for non-Caucasians. Factors other than ACT scores appear to be better predictors of academic success for the student-athlete, thus casting doubt upon the validity of Proposal 48 for the NCAA.

THE VALIDITY OF VARIOUS METHODS OF TREATING MULTIPLE SAT® SCORES

ABSTRACTA review of the literature concerned with validity data and policies for various methods of treating multiple scores is reported, as are analyses of data from the College Board Validity Study Service. The analyses evaluated the use of SAT‐V alone, SAT‐M alone, and the use of both in combination. The methods for treating multiple scores that were studied were to use the score from the administration with the highest V + M, the highest score, the most recent score, and the average. Best results, in terms of the highest average validity, were achieved using average V + M. Also evaluated were weighted combinations where all scores were used, but the highest or most recent received a unique, empirically determined weight. The use of the empirically determined weights was not superior in cross‐validation.The combinations of variables, and the four methods of treating multiple scores that did not involve the determination of empirical weights, were evaluated in regression equations developed using one‐time testers. All treatments of multiple scores resulted in underprediction of actual grades, with the highest score providing the least amount of underprediction. However, the discrepancy between predicted and actual grades varied greatly across institutions.Data from the Student Descriptive Questionnaire (SDQ) were cross tabulated with the number of retests. It was found that first test score‐level, income, and race were all related to the frequency of retesting.

Mega code evaluation: The development of graded criteria

We developed an objective evaluation tool for grading students' performances in the advanced cardiac life support mega code. Specific functions for each student role are delineated. Each function is linked to a point system yielding an actual grade for each role, and pass/fail criteria are based on this grade. Use of the tool can eliminate instructor subjectivity and provide a permanent record of the student's performance.

Sex differences in personality and expectancy

It has been shown that women have a lower expectancy than men before examinations, without there being any differences in past performance levels or in work spent in exam preparations. It was proposed that these sex differences in expectancy could be understood as an expression of differences in instrumental/expressive personality dispositions. In a group of undergraduate psychology students tested a short time before examination, scores on a composite index called “Strong” were found to account for a significant but small amount of variance in expectancy estimates. The relationship between expectancy and Strong was also found to depend on the level of another composite index called “Warm.” A fairly high correlation between expectancy and Strong was thus found for Ss describing themselves as warm. For Ss describing themselves as not very warm, no relationship between expectancy and Strong was found. When differences in personality traits were controlled, however, women were still found to have a lower expectancy than men. Expectancy was found to be a more accurate predictor of actual grades for Ss with high scores on instrumental traits than for Ss with low scores.

Testing for Teaching

The first week of classes was finally over. Ms. Jones could now take the tests that she was obligated to give and record the scores, as she had done for the past ten years. She noted mentally that Tommie Smith's mathematics score indicated that he was two years below his actual grade level. “I'll have to do something about that,” she thinks as she puts Tommie's cumulative folder in the file—where it belongs.

Preliminary report on the effects of diet discontinuation in PKU

A collaborative study of diet discontinuation in children with PKU was initiated in 1973. Children treated with the phenylalanine-restricted diet since early infancy were randomly assigned to continue or discontinue dietary therapy at age 6 years after parental consent was obtained. The 115 children participating in this study range in age from 8 to 13 years. At 6 years of age, the IQ of continuers and discontinuers was 101 and 97, respectively. At 8 years, WISC Full-Scale IQ scores adjusted for mean differences on the 6-year Stanford-Binet IQ were 101 for continuers and 98 for discontinuers (P = 0.075). School performance measured by the Wide Range Achievement Test showed significant differences on reading (3.9 vs 3.2) and spelling (3.3 vs 2.9) grade placement, although scores were above actual grade placement (2.7 vs 2.6) for both groups. Continuers and discontinuers were not different in arithmetic scores, with performance at grade placement of 2.7 and 2.6 respectively. Although these data are preliminary in nature, they suggest that subtle changes in cerebral function may occur in children with PKU in whom the phenylalanine diet has been discontinued.

Predicting success in a first programming course

The results of a study to develop a predictor of success in a first programming course are presented. The predictor is based on data currently available for a substantial number of students and is tailored to the local program. This predictor is developed using data from a group of students who took the course in the fall of 1980. The results obtained by applying the predictor to a second group of students who took the course in the fall of 1981 are compared with these students' actual grades.

THE NELSON‐DENNY READING TEST AS A PREDICTOR OF COLLEGE GRADES

ABSTRACT This report studied the predictive validity of the Nelson‐Denny Reading Test (NDRT). Using a sample of over 12,000 college students, the ability of the NDRT was compared to the ability of the Scholastic Aptitude Verbal Tests (SAT‐V) in predicting freshman grade point average and grades in English composition. For each test regression equations were calculated using a calibration group and then crossvalidated with a test group of the sample. The effectiveness of each test was compared applying three evaluation indices: multiple correlation coefficient, mean absolute error of prediction, and the proportion whose predicted grade was within 0.20 units of their actual grade. Essentially, the NDRT and SAT‐V were of equal value in predicting the criteria