Prediction of freshman GPA from college-admissions and high school tests

Summary:  View help for Summary The current focus on assessing “college and career readiness” raises an empirical question: how do high-school tests compare with college-admissions tests in predicting performance in college? We explored this using data from the City University of New York and public colleges in Kentucky. These two systems differ in the choice of college-admissions test, the stakes for students on the high-school test, and demographics. We predicted freshman grade-point average (FGPA) from high-school grade-point average and both college-admissions and high-school tests in mathematics and English. In both systems, the choice of tests had only trivial effects on the aggregate prediction of FGPA. Adding either test to an equation that included the other had only trivial effects on prediction. Although the findings suggest that the choice of test might advantage or disadvantage different students, it had no substantial effect on the over- and underprediction of FGPA for students classified by race/ethnicity or poverty.

Funding Sources:  View help for Funding Sources United States Department of Education. Institute of Education Sciences (R305AII0420)