College Board working on behavior-based standardized test

[Cozmo]

<p>Not exactly, but with paper titles like The Use of Background and Ability Profiles to Predict College Student Outcomes we have reason to be worried. MSU researchers, led by psych department chairperson Neal Schmitt, are getting ready to publish a paper on research they just completed. Here’s the link to MSU’s newsrelease: [MSU</a> researchers go beyond test scores and GPAs to predict college student success](<a href=“http://www.newsroom.msu.edu/site/indexer/2818/content.htm]MSU”>http://www.newsroom.msu.edu/site/indexer/2818/content.htm).
excerpt:

Aug. 2, 2006</p>

<p>EAST LANSING, Mich. — Just as books can’t be judged by their covers, neither can incoming college students be assessed solely by college entrance exams and high school GPAs.</p>

<p>A new study by MSU psychologists suggests that a combination of biographical data, judgment measures and ability can be used effectively to clump students into a small handful of categories. Such sorting, in turn, may improve efforts to shape important parts of the college experience and intervene with students prone to run into problems, according to the researchers.</p>

<p>This new measuring stick might help smooth the playing field and reshape the idea of post-secondary achievement, according to Michigan State University psychology professors Neal Schmitt, Fred Oswald and a team of graduate students, who co-wrote the study.</p>

<p>Educators and counselors long have looked for a reliable means to anticipate student success in college. Test scores and GPAs are seen as one-dimensional – useful to foretell classroom success but of limited value in predicting outcomes such as the likelihood of developing leadership skills, close interpersonal relationships and a sound sense of ethics.

</p>

<p>I consider this pretty scary stuff, which is why I drummed up some doom in my own post on the subject on my [url=<a href=“http://www.samjackson.org/college/feed-it-gossip-hear-your-future-gpa-pt-2/]blog[/url”>http://www.samjackson.org/college/feed-it-gossip-hear-your-future-gpa-pt-2/]blog[/url</a>]. I contacted Neal Schmitt myself the other day and corresponded with him a little bit (am continuing to do so) and received prepublication copies of the paper and two other related ones. I obviously wasn’t able to understand all of it but read through the 170 pages of stuff and picked out some quite interesting pieces, just for you guys! I won’t drown this thread in all my commentary, but I’ll post out some of the parts (more @ my site if you wanted to see) that I lifted out as being particularly interesting…</p>

<p>It’s not exactly the most accessible of beach reading; the hypotheses are phrased like this: [H1] Perceptions of person-organization fit will lead to satisfaction, which in turn will lead to behavioral outcomes such as intent to turnover and performance. Totally straightforward for the next 48 pages, just like that. (Just kidding, there are actually 7 hypotheses with subsections for some of them.)</p>

<p>Sample was of 2,771 undergraduates, though there was not insignificant attitrition over the course of the study. Related to that, here’s a fun snippet:

As can be seen, the final sample has a smaller proportion of African American students and a correspondingly greater proportion of Caucasians and Asian Americans. The average SAT/ACT scores and high school GPAs of the final sample were higher than those of the initial respondent group.

</p>

<p>Blacks were also intentionally over-represented. : &lt;/p>

<p>In any case, here is what the study sounds like:

In similar fashion, **we believe that those who are highly extraverted will perceive increased fit and satisfaction with college life over time. **At most universities, including those attended by the students in our study, most college freshmen spend their first year living in close proximity in dormitories. In addition, in most dorms, students will have one or more roommates, will likely share bathrooms and other facilities, eat some or all of their meals in college cafeterias and take part in social activities organized by their resident assistant. Those students who are extraverted are more likely to make friends in these situations and perceive that they fit in this atmosphere, whereas less extraverted students will not enjoy the social closeness and lack of privacy they tend to encounter in dormitory life. This close living proximity inevitably requires tolerance of others’ behavior and idiosyncrasies as well as willingness to share and compromise, so we believe that Agreeableness will also be positively associated with perceptions of fit and satisfaction with students’ social situation. Hence it seems reasonable to pose the following hypothesis:
H7: Extraversion and Agreeableness should be related positively to changes in perceptions of social fit and social satisfaction. 

</p>

<p>Now, the bolded section (emphasis mine) does illustrate the fact that not all of the hypotheses here are exactly mind-blowing. Still, very interesting stuff, as everything has nice clean data behind it. Some of the hypotheses were more spectacular than the seventh one, above.</p>

<p>In any case, I do take issue with some of the logic and reasoning here. It doesn’t seem airtight in many places. For instance:

Skipping classes and being late to classes may be proximal evidence of physical and psychological withdrawal from the university community, which in turn may be correlated with eventual transfer to another college or with dropping out of college entirely.

</p>

<p>Oh well. Let’s just hope CollegeBoard is too busy being investigated by senators to administer this new test to us.</p>

<p>oh–the CB link is this:

The College Board approached Schmitt and Oswald about conducting the study, which it plans to use to enhance college admissions.

from the State News [url=<a href=“http://www.statenews.com/article.phtml?pk=37042]here[/url”>http://www.statenews.com/article.phtml?pk=37042]here[/url</a>].</p>

<p>enjoyyy</p>

[Tonyt88]

<p>Well perhaps you should reconsider the title of your thread to: College Board working on ways to get more money from stressed out college applicants ;)</p>

[Cozmo]

<p>or: College Board working on new way to enable colleges to market themselves</p>

<p>lotta possibilities… : P</p>

[Puppetzz]

<p>great, Im applying to MSU as my number one school and my leadership and EC’s suck. Ohh well my grades and ACT is good as well as my essay.</p>

[Cozmo]

<p>Don’t worry, just check off different boxes on the standardized Applicant Personality Profile (APP) test which I’m sure Dr. Schmitt will rush to Admissions. They robot test-graders will never know!</p>

[thegreatjaadoo]

<p>I’m sure people will figure out how to study for it anyway.</p>

[YA10]

<p>yayyy college board gets to create another test that is mandating by all colleges that costs $50/pop but the idea is solid though. Numbers cannot tell the whole story.</p>

[Cozmo]

<p>Well, I’m wondering how they would ensure accurate answers on something like this if they ever administered it properly. The logistics of it certainly haven’t been worked out yet.</p>