Gender Differences in College Preparedness: A Statewide Study

In this study, the authors investigated the extent to which boys and girls differed in their college-ready performance in reading, in math, and in both subjects for the 2006–2007 school year for the state of Texas (n = 1,099 high schools). Also examined were the extent to which boys and girls differed in their performance on the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) and the American College Test (ACT) for the 2005–2006 and 2006–2007 school years. Differences in criterion scores, as well as how many boys and girls actually took these exams, were examined in addition to their average scores. Statistically significant differences were present between the college-ready scores of boys and of girls in reading, math, and in both subject areas. Of special note is that less than one-third of all students were deemed to be college-ready in both subject areas. Statistically significant differences also were revealed between boys and girls in the percentage taking the SAT or ACT, in the percentage meeting the SAT or ACT criterion, and in their SAT average scores, but not in their ACT average scores. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Answering the New SAT Reading Comprehension Questions Without the Passages

It has been reasonably well established that test takers can, to varying degrees, answer some reading comprehension questions without reading the passages on which the questions are based, even for carefully constructed measures like the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). The aim of this study was to determine what test-taking strategies examinees use, and which are related to test performance, when reading passages are not available. The research focused on reading comprehension questions similar to those that will be used in the revised SAT, to be introduced in 1994. The most often cited strategies involved choosing answers on the basis of consistency with other questions and reconstructing the main theme of a missing passage from all of the questions and answers in a set. These strategies were more likely to result in successful performance on individual test items than were any of many other possible (and less constructrelevant) strategies.     

美国大学入学考试ACT深度剖析

ACT是美国历史上除SAT外又一使用最为广泛、研究最为深入的大学入学考试,至今已有近50年的历史。ACT试题由英语写作测试、数学测试、阅读测试、科学测试四部分组成。ACT考试全美统一,每年举行6次。ACT属于成就测验,但与SAT一样都非常重视对活学活用、分析推理与解决问题、批判性思维等能力的考查。目前,几乎所有美国高校都平等地接受考生的ACT和SAT成绩。ACT与SAT编制、设计与实施方面的许多经验,值得我们认真研究与借鉴。     

Effects of curricular emphasis in college on the GRE and its impact on the gender gap in performance

Previous research has indicated positive relations between a curricular emphasis during college and improvements in GRE performance for content that matches that emphasis. However, measurement issues and a lack of a theoretical approach have contributed to a lack of precision and detail in the estimates of the relation between college experiences and performance for relevant content. In the current study, we hypothesized that differences in training between students majoring in math related majors and students majoring in reading and writing related majors would be differentially related to the size of the changes on GRE performance. Further, we hypothesized the gender gap in GRE-Quant performance would be reduced when the higher likelihood of males majoring in math related majors was modelled. The expert performance approach was used to develop three path models (including curricular emphasis, college grade performance, previous performance on the SAT, and gender) to compare the effects of the relation of a curricular emphasis in math on GRE-Quant performance to the effects of the relation of an emphasis in reading and writing on GRE-Verbal performance. The results indicated support for our predictions that a math course emphasis was related to larger GRE performance gains and that gender differences in curricular emphasis during college partially mediated the large gender gap in GRE-Quant performance. Additionally, higher grade performance average was found to positively predict GRE performance with college experiences and previous performance statistically controlled. Implications for the relation between training accrued during college courses and changes in GRE performance are discussed.     

Item Difficulty of Four Verbal Item Types and an Index of Differential Item Functioning for Black and White Examinees

In this study, the authors explored the importance of item difficulty (equated delta) as a predictor of differential item functioning (DIF) of Black versus matched White examinees for four verbal item types (analogies, antonyms, sentence completions, reading comprehension) using 13 GRE-disclosed forms (988 verbal items) and 11 SAT-disclosed forms (935 verbal items). The average correlation across test forms for each item type (and often the correlation for each individual test form as well) revealed a significant relationship between item difficulty and DIF value for both GRE and SAT. The most important finding indicates that for hard items, Black examinees perform differentially better than matched ability White examinees for each of the four item types and for both the GRE and SAT tests! The results further suggest that the amount of verbal context is an important determinant of the magnitude of the relationship between item difficulty and differential performance of Black versus matched White examinees. Several hypotheses accounting for this result were explored.     

The Effects of Pre‐School Experience on Reading Attainment: a four year cross‐sectional study

This paper examines the reading attainments of a sample of Year 2 children who had one of three types of preschool experience. The results of a 4‐year cross‐sectional study of a sample of all Year 2 children (n = 834) from six randomly selected primary schools within one Local Education Authority (LEA) are presented. The children had attended nursery or playgroup or experienced no preschool provision outside the home: they were not matched for social background. Pupils’ scores on The Primary Reading Test (PRT) [France, N. (1981) The Primary Reading Test (Windsor, NFER/Nelson] are compared over the 4 years, as are the reading Standardised Assessment Task (SAT) scores of the last two cohorts. Results are not clear cut. For 3 of the 4 years, the group with no‐preschool experience performed significantly less well than at least one of the other two groups with some type of preschool experience on the PRT. The SAT levels of nursery children were significantly higher than those of the other two groups. Conclusions, based on such a small study, are tentative. It appears that preschool provision has an effect on children's reading attainments and that this is still significant in Year 2. The validity of the SAT is considered as a factor in the relative reading attainments of the three groups.     

New measures of college selectivity

Institutional averages of entering freshman scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Test (ACT) were combined and edited to produce a single institutional measure of selectivity for 2,601 institutions. Older scores were adjusted to reflect decreasing performance over time, and ACT scores were converted to SAT equivalents, resulting in a final measure that reflects 1973 performance levels and is expressed as an SAT Verbal plus Mathematical score (range 400–1,600). Actual scores were available for 1,803 schools; the remaining schools with missing values were given an imputed score based upon means from similar institutions among the 1,803. Correlations between scores from different years and between the final measure and 19 institutional attributes indicated substantial reliability and validity for the selectivity measure.     

考研英语二和大学英语四级阅读题对比研究

研究生入学英语二考试是一项较有影响力的考试,大学英语四级考试更是目前我国规模最大的语言能力等级测试。从对文本和试题类型的分析,对两者阅读测试的不同特征进行对比研究。研究材料为大学英语四级真题(2010.12,2011.6,2011.12)和研究生入学英语二真题(2010,2011,2012)中的阅读理解题各三份,共六份试题,27篇阅读材料。研究结果表明考研英语二的阅读测试难度较大学英语四级高,而测试的信度和效度则比大学英语四级的试题低。     

Vocabulary does not complicate the simple view of reading

Gough and Tunmer’s (1986) simple view of reading (SVR) proposed that reading comprehension (RC) is a function of language comprehension (LC) and word recognition/decoding. Braze et al. (2007) presented data suggesting an extension of the SVR in which knowledge of vocabulary (V) affected RC over and above the effects of LC. Tunmer and Chapman (2012) found a similar independent contribution of V to RC when the data were analyzed by hierarchical regression. However, additional analysis by factor analysis and structural equation modeling indicated that the effect of V on RC was, in fact, completely captured by LC itself and there was no need to posit a separate direct effect of V on RC. In the present study, we present new data from young adults with sub-optimal reading skill (N = 286). Latent variable and regression analyses support Gough and Tunmer’s original proposal and the conclusions of Tunmer and Chapman that V can be considered a component of LC and not an independent contributor to RC.     

Assessing Reading Comprehension: The Effects of Text-Based Interest,Gender, and Ability

Previous research has established that interest in a text is related to better comprehension and recall, but the impact of interest on comprehension in testing situations has not been widely investigated. This study used Hierarchical Linear Models (HLM) to examine the relationship between students' interest in reading passages and their performance on reading comprehension test items over those passages. The study involved 19,735 students in Grades 4 through 8. Stimuli consisted of 98 different reading passages. A small but significant relationship between interest and test performance was found, which was stronger for girls and for students of higher ability levels. A second HLM analysis was employed to explore whether certain passage characteristics were associated with higher or lower interest. The implications for test construction are discussed.     

分析美国大学入学考试科目的新视角——以SATII:美国历史与社会学科为例

美国的大学入学实行综合性测评,其中大学入学考试(包括SAT和ACT)起重要作用。本文以SATII:美国历史与社会学科为例,从考试对学生的能力要求、对学生要掌握知识的分析以及试题特色与不足三个不同的视角对SATII:美国历史与社会学科进行了分析,从而也打破了以往只分析考试试题的传统。     

Evaluating deaf students' readiness to meet the English language and literacy demands of postsecondary educational programs

The purpose of this study was to investigate alternative methods for evaluating deaf students' readiness to meet the English language and literacy demands of postsecondary educational programs. In the first part of the study, scores obtained by a large sample of deaf students on the ACT Assessment (ACT Composite score and scores on the ACT English and Reading tests) were compared to their scores on various measures of English language and literacy skills. In the second part of the study, the performance of a smaller sample of deaf students on the ESL Reading and ESL Grammar/Usage components of COMPASS/ESL was compared to their performance on a set of concurrent measures of English skills. The results of this investigation demonstrate that neither the ACT Assessment nor COMPASS/ESL are appropriate for the full range of deaf students seeking admission to postsecondary educational programs. However, the ACT Assessment is appropriate for deaf students seeking admission to transferable (BS and AAS) degree programs, and the ESL Reading and Grammar/Usage tests appear to be appropriate for deaf students seeking admission to nontransferable (AOS) degree programs. Taken together, the combination of the ACT Assessment and COMPASS/ESL appear able to provide a valid, reliable, and coherent approach to admissions screening assessment for the full range of deaf students seeking admission to postsecondary programs.     

美国SAT考试的最新改革

美国的SAT考试是从1926年起实行的大学升学考试,历经几度修改以适应时代的变化,目前正在改革当中的新SAT将于2005年春季正式实行.改革包括四项具体考试内容的变化以及总体记分和时间的变化:1.取消逻辑类比问题;2.增加短文阅读理解;3.取消数学部分的数值比较,增加高等数学的部分基础内容;4.增设写作部分.总分从原来的1,600分增加到2,400分;时间延长30分钟.     

Effects of Computer Anxiety and Computer Experience on the Computer-Based Achievement Test Performance of College Students

The TOEFL® iBT has increased the length of each reading passage to better approximate academic reading at North American universities, resulting in a reduction in the number of passages on the reading section of the test. One of the concerns brought about by this change is whether the decrease in topic variety increases the likelihood that an examinee's familiarity with the content of a given passage will influence the examinee's reading performance. This study investigated differential item functioning and differential bundle functioning for six TOEFL® iBT reading passages (N?=?8,692), three involving physical science and three involving cultural topics. The majority of items displayed little or no DIF. When all of the items in a passage were examined, none of the passages showed differential functioning at the passage level. Hypotheses are provided for the DIF occurrences. Implications on fairness issues in test development are also discussed.     

Deaf college students' mathematical skills relative to morphological knowledge, reading level, and language proficiency

This study of deaf college students examined specific relationships between their mathematics performance and their assessed skills in reading, language, and English morphology. Simple regression analyses showed that deaf college students' language proficiency scores, reading grade level, and morphological knowledge regarding word segmentation and meaning were all significantly correlated with both the ACT Mathematics Subtest and National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) Mathematics Placement Test scores. Multiple regression analyses identified the best combination from among these potential independent predictors of students' performance on both the ACT and NTID mathematics tests. Additionally, the participating deaf students' grades in their college mathematics courses were significantly and positively associated with their reading grade level and their knowledge of morphological components of words.     

ACT考试的发展历程及其对我国高考内容改革的启示

ACT考试始于1959年,是美国历史上除SAT外又一使用最为广泛、研究最为深入的大学入学考试,其评价结果已得到世界上知名学府的普遍认可。本文按照ACT考试内容的变化,将其发展过程分为三个阶段,第一阶段以重点考查学生所掌握的基本知识和技能而与一般能力考试SAT相区别;第二阶段加大了对学生计算能力、阅读能力的考查;第三阶段转向关注学生的主观表达能力,增设写作测试内容。指出ACT考试注重考查综合素质的趋势,对我国当前的高考内容改革的启示与借鉴。     

Estimated student score gain on the act COMP exam: Valid tool for institutional assessment?

The higher education community needs measures of the value added to student development by the college experience. ACT provides a quick, easy method for estimating the extent of student growth in general education. An institution can test seniors with the ACT College Outcome Measures Project (COMP) exam, then subtract from the senior score anestimated freshman score obtained from a concordance table that is based on the known relationship between freshman ACT Assessment composite score and freshman COMP Total score. Studies using scores for 4,200 seniors and 2,100 freshmen tested during a two-year period at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, indicate that this method is not sufficiently reliable or valid to serve as the basis for making precise judgments about the quality of general education programs.     

美国大学入学考试SAT与ACT对我国高考的启示——对我国高考的近期与远期改革建议

美国大学入学考试主要有两种:SAT与ACT。美国大学在选拔新生时强调素质的全面考查,但SAT、ACT等大学入学考试的成绩也至关重要。美国大学入学考试SAT或ACT每年均开展多次,大学入学考试与高校录取工作相对独立地开展,实行"招考分离"。学生亦可报名参加多次SAT或ACT考试,高校以最高成绩为选拔依据。SAT、ACT考试编制的科学化程度较高,试题难度稳定,得到了多数大学的信任。变"一次高考机会"为"多次高考机会",实行"招考分离",是我国高考改革的大势所趋。但具体改革的操作细节应深入研究,谨慎实施,以免发生执行上的偏差。     

Constructing a Universal Scale of High School Course Difficulty

This study examined the usefulness of applying the Rasch rating scale model (Andrich, 1978) to high school grade data. ACT Assessment test scores (English, Mathematics, Reading, and Science Reasoning) were used as "common items" to adjust for different grading standards in individual high school courses both within and across schools. This scaling approach yielded an ACT Assessment-adjusted high school grade point average (AA-HSGPA) on a common scale across high schools and cohorts within a large public university. AA-HSGPA was a better predictor of first-year college grade point average (CGPA) than the regular high school grade point average. The best model for predicting CGPA included both the ACT composite score and AA-HSGPA.