I show that there are better measures of student college performance than grade point average (GPA) by undertaking a fine-grained empirical investigation of grading within a large public university. The value of using GPA as a measure of comparative performance is undermined by academically weaker students taking courses where the grading is more…

In a pilot program during the 2016-17 admissions cycle, the University of California, Berkeley invited many applicants for freshman admission to submit letters of recommendation. This proved controversial within the university, with concerns that this change would further disadvantage applicants from disadvantaged groups. To inform this debate, we…

This report presents a question-driven exploration of growth and achievement data using SAS EVAAS reports. The purpose of this exploration was to bring additional data, information, and ways of thinking about student growth to ongoing district conversations about the measurement of campus-level student growth.

This is the technical appendix for the report, "Does Raising High School Graduation Requirements Improve Student Outcomes?" While high school graduation rates in California have increased in the past decade, nearly 40 percent of California high school graduates do not enroll in college; the disruptive impact of the pandemic has…

The abrupt shift to distance learning at the onset of the COVID-19 crisis exacerbated inequalities in California's K-12 system and added urgency to an ongoing discussion about the role of high school graduation policy in promoting equitable student outcomes. More rigorous graduation requirements, particularly in math and science, can improve…

This study explores the value in using the difference between a student's predicted first-year grade point average (FYGPA), based on high school grade point average and SAT scores, and their observed FYGPA, namely, their FYGPA residual, as a tool in identifying those at risk for leaving an institution. Specifically, this study examined whether…

The present study builds on previous findings and analyzes how social climate (Moos, 1988), chapter advisement, and living status differ for members of high- and low-achieving fraternities (as measured by cumulative chapter GPA) and how the interplay of personal and environmental factors influence binge drinking and GPA among college men in…

Nine years of results on 4.2 million of Indiana's Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress (ISTEP) mathematics (math) exams (grades 3-10) taken after the implementation of No Child Left Behind have been used to determine gender gaps and their associated trends. Sociocultural factors were investigated by comparing math gender gaps and gap…

Are international undergraduates struggling academically, and are their struggles due to weaknesses in English as a second language? The present study showed that 1) at most 10% of these students in three cohorts (ranging in size from N = 322 to N = 695) at an American west coast public university struggled (quarterly grade point averages below C)…

We provide evidence of persistent gender effects for students using advanced adaptive technology while learning mathematics. This technology improves each gender's learning and affective predispositions toward mathematics, but specific features in the software help either female or male students. Gender differences were seen in the students' style…

Student employment subsidies are one of the largest types of federal employment subsidies, and one of the oldest forms of student aid. Yet it is unclear whether they help or harm students' long term outcomes. This document contains the appendices to the report "Should Student Employment Be Subsidized? Conditional Counterfactuals and the…

Further discussion of declining SAT scores is presented. (MM)

Although teachers focus on style, fluency, tone, and correct grammar in writing, they rarely emphasize the importance of content. Both the National Commission on Writing in America's Schools and Colleges and the NAEP seem to favor emotional and personal writing, at least at the high school level. Judging from their guidelines, both the SAT and the…

Questions radiological physicist Ernest J. Sternglass's theory that links falling Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores in the 1960s and '70s to nuclear weapons testing in the late '40s, the '50s, and early '60s. Notes other scientists' contention that Sternglass's theory only establishes a correlation, not a cause and effect relationship. (JBM)

The relation between incorrect option choice and estimated ability level was examined for two widely used aptitude tests, the Scholastic Aptitude Test, and the Graduate Record Examination. Incorrect option choice was found to be related to estimated ability for many items. Implications of these findings are briefly discussed. (Author)