This article offers a critique of the validity argument put forward by Camara, Mattern, Croft, and Vispoel (2019) regarding the use of college-admissions tests in high school assessment systems. We challenge their argument in two main ways. First, we illustrate why their argument fails to address broader issues related to consequences of using…

In the context of college admissions, the current study examined whether differential prediction of first-year grade point average (FYGPA) by gender could be explained by an omitted variable problem--namely, academic discipline, or the amount of effort a student puts into schoolwork and the degree to which a student sees him/herself as hardworking…

In 2018, 26 states administered a college admissions test to all public school juniors. Nearly half of those states proposed to use those scores as their academic achievement indicators for federal accountability under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA); many others are planning to use those scores for other accountability purposes.…

We examined summary indices of high school performance (coursework, grades, and test scores) based on the graded response model (GRM). The indices varied by inclusion of ACT test scores and whether high school courses were constrained to have the same difficulty and discrimination across groups of schools. The indices were examined with respect to…

Studies of student performance on entrance examinations and in high school and college courses are reviewed, and the validity of entrance examinations is studied. Scores tend to underpredict grades of females relative to those of males in mathematics courses. Possible explanations and the reform of mathematics education are discussed. (SLD)