02 Aug
Posted by Sam Jackson as Admissions, College, College Board, Teenagers
Through “a series of multiple-choice questions,” researchers plan to predict how students will succeed (or not succeed) in college. What test could I be talking about: the SAT, the ACT, the AP, IB, or maybe even the TOEFL? No, it’s some new test–so new it doesn’t have a dehumanizing acronym applied to it yet! Better yet, it doesn’t use language or math to predict aptitude–it uses background information! Awesome! Wait…
(Article truncated here)
update Aug 2: the Research being done at MSU by MSU researchers, MSU has belatedly put up a nice, extra-informative article on the subject HERE.
update Aug 3: I emailed Dr. Schmitt, chair of the MSU psych department, and got the prepublication papers, which are very interesting. I’m reading through them now (~175 pages, so sort of skimming) and will report on them soon. Yeah, I know, excellent use of my time.
Professors Find Ways to Predict Student Success
http://www.statenews.com/article.phtml?pk=37042
The State NewsGrade-point averages and SAT scores can only do so much to predict student success at college. That’s why two MSU professors researched other ways to anticipate how student life beyond the books plays into college performance.After looking at students’ interests, background experiences and motivational characteristics from 10 universities during a four-year period, psychology professors Neal Schmitt, Frederick Oswald and a team of undergraduate and graduate students found predictors for student potential, including their likeliness to cheat, drop out of school and attend classes regularly.
The College Board approached Schmitt and Oswald about conducting the study, which it plans to use to enhance college admissions.
“I think it’s a step forward in terms of learning about college performance more broadly and how to admit students that will create a more well-rounded student body,” Oswald said.
Oswald and Schmitt started by examining college mission statements to find which student traits universities desire. They narrowed them down to 12 categories, including artistic and cultural appreciation, social responsibility and citizenship, and career orientation. [...]
“It is daunting in a sense that no test is perfect in predicting students’ success,” Oswald said. “We did the best as we could to make the test as reliable and predictable of student outcomes as possible.” “You lose some of that individual richness, but what you gain is the consistency, and it’s interpreted in a similar way on the admissions side of things,” Oswald said.
The next step in utilizing the information is extending the research to high school seniors, said Viji Sathy, an associate research scientist for the College Board.
Good:
Bad:
Worst:
Scary…
Read part 2 of this exciting story here: Feed it Gossip hear your future GPA pt. 2
4 Responses
George R.T. Gram
August 3rd, 2006 at 1:52 am
1I thoroughly enjoyed this article, I thought it was cute.
George R.T. Gram
August 3rd, 2006 at 2:34 am
2Much clearer after the MSU article…
Another concern with this study is their means in collecting psychological data, biographical information….for one is not very accurate in personality assesment, also, situational judgement tests(you can find them all over the web), unfortunately overlap considerably in regards to sorting out personality types.
Now for the problem…according to the essay, these professors, after collecting this super accurate :/ data and creating a test out of it, are proposing it be put into effective use…and the college board(well, at least one dude) is actually going for it. What the hell?
College Board to make test using background info pt. 2 at the Sam Jackson College Experience
August 10th, 2006 at 3:29 am
3[...] I wrote yesterday about an upcoming paper from MSU researchers about prediction of future academic success from current measured background characteristics. Realizing that I could, I requested a prepublication copy of the paper. Fewer than five hours later, at 7:41 this morning, what arrives in my inbox but a response from head researcher and chairperson of the MSU psychology department Dr. Neal Schmitt? So I quickly leapt at the 14,000 word, 56 page paper and accompanying 120 pages of side material. I mostly just skimmed those supplements, but they were interesting too. I see why people want to take psych 101 so much. [...]
Adam Sidney Kelly Esq.
December 28th, 2006 at 5:42 pm
4George, you are worried because if you had to take the test, you would be scored on your lack of artistic and cultural appreciation, terrorist-esque social responsibility and citizenship, and lack of career orientation.
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