This study examined differences in participation or nonparticipation in an ACT preparation course, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status on ACT scores. Practice ACT scores were used as a covariate to control for individual differences in student scores. Participants consisted of 264 students from one graduating class at a large high school in…

This mixed-methods study explored American College Test (ACT) composite scores and Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) growth scores in connection with a student's race, socioeconomic status, and gender as well as perceived factors that promote or inhibit success on the ACT. Quantitative data were collected from existing TVAAS data for…

Despite Supreme Court cases which have upheld the 1978 Bakke ruling, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is considering challenging colleges that consider race as a factor in admissions. As colleges and universities prepare to return to the fray in response to the most recent surfacing of this issue, One might ask if everything possible is being done…

Since the separate-but-equal era, students attending schools with high concentrations of Black students have attempted to improve the quality of their educations through school finance litigation. Because of the negative effects of racial isolation, Black students might consider mounting school finance litigation to force states to explicitly…

The stability of selected indices for detecting differential item performance (item bias), from one randomly equivalent sample to another, is addressed. Some recent research has criticized these indices as too unreliable for utility in measuring bias in achievement test items. Using data from a national testing of the ACT Assessment, however, this…

Results of study suggest several factors which may have contributed to ACT score decline between 1966 and 1976. These are (1) increased number of Black students taking the test and scoring lower than White students, (2) decline in number of academic courses taken by students, and (3) increased absenteeism. (Author)

Triggered by recent exposures of illiterate college athletes, the academic exploitation of athletes, and the manipulation of educational standards for athletes at all levels, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in January 1983 passed an academic requirements ruling for all Division I schools within the NCAA. "Proposition…