The evaluation of a special educational opportunities program for disadvantaged college students

This paper analyzes the early academic achievement of disadvantaged, mainly black, students admitted to the Special Educational Opportunities Program (the SEOP) at the Urbana-Champaign campus of the University of Illinois in the fall of 1968 and 1969.High school percentile rank and standardized test scores predicted the early overall academic performance of SEOP students. Validities, though significant, were not high and were possibly attenuated by use of too difficult test instruments and by inflated grading practices. Nevertheless, the data indicate that recruitment people should not abandon customary merit selection based upon these types of measures. Test scores were found to be more valid for predicting the GPA of regularly admitted students than for the prediction of GPA for SEOP students; the predictive effectiveness of high school percentile rank was greater for regularly admitted students.The research reported herein was performed, in part, pursuant to a contract with the United States Office of Education, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the Office of Education and no official endorsement by the Office of Education should be inferred. Project No. 9-E-136/Contract No. OEG-5-70-0005.