IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cdl/cshedu/qt9hf3t044.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

California and the SAT: A Reanalysis of University of California Admissions Data

Author

Listed:
  • Zwick, Rebecca
  • Brown, Terran
  • Sklar, Jeffrey C.

Abstract

As part of the University of California's recent reconsideration of the role of the SAT in admissions, the UC Office of the President published an extensive report, UC and the SAT (2001), which examined the value of SAT I Reasoning Test scores, SAT II Subject Test scores, and high school grades in predicting the grade-point averages of UC freshmen (UCGPA), as well as the role of economic factors in predicting UCGPA. The analyses in UC and the SAT were based primarily on data that had been aggregated across freshmen cohorts (1996 through 1999) and across UC campuses. In the current study, by contrast, data were analyzed within campuses and cohorts and then summarized. While some of our conclusions are similar to those in UC and the SAT, others are not. Like the earlier study, for example, our reanalyses showed that, considered collectively, the SAT II tests required by UC (Writing, Math, and a third test of the applicant's choice) are slightly superior to the SAT I as a predictor of UCGPA. But our reanalyses also revealed considerable variability across campuses and freshman cohorts in the predictive value of high school grades and test scores, which was masked in the earlier analyses. Also, our reanalyses did not support the conclusion in UC and the SAT that SAT II scores are "less sensitive" to socioeconomic factors than SAT I scores, an assertion that was often repeated during the SAT debate that took place in 2001 and 2002.

Suggested Citation

  • Zwick, Rebecca & Brown, Terran & Sklar, Jeffrey C., 2004. "California and the SAT: A Reanalysis of University of California Admissions Data," University of California at Berkeley, Center for Studies in Higher Education qt9hf3t044, Center for Studies in Higher Education, UC Berkeley.
  • Handle: RePEc:cdl:cshedu:qt9hf3t044
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/9hf3t044.pdf;origin=repeccitec
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rothstein, Jesse M, 2004. "College performance predictions and the SAT," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt59s4j4m4, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    2. Rothstein, J.M.Jesse M., 2004. "College performance predictions and the SAT," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 121(1-2), pages 297-317.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chatman, Steve, 2007. "Institutional Versus Academic Discipline Measures of Student Experience: A Matter of Relative Validity," University of California at Berkeley, Center for Studies in Higher Education qt81f4h1nn, Center for Studies in Higher Education, UC Berkeley.
    2. Masoumeh Ahmadi Shirazi, 2019. "For a Greater Good: Bias Analysis in Writing Assessment," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(1), pages 21582440188, January.
    3. Dur, Robert & Glazer, Amihai, 2008. "Subsidizing Enjoyable Education," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 1023-1039, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Guyonne Kalb & Sholeh A. Maani, 2007. "The Importance of Observing Early School Leaving and Usually Unobserved Background and Peer Characteristics in Analysing Academic Performance," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2007n05, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    2. Joseph H. Paris & Catherine Pressimone Beckowski & Sara Fiorot, 2023. "Predicting Success: An Examination of the Predictive Validity of a Measure of Motivational-Developmental Dimensions in College Admissions," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 64(8), pages 1191-1216, December.
    3. Sezgin Polat & Jean-Jacques Paul, 2016. "How to predict university performance: a case study from a prestigious Turkish university?," Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación volume 11, in: José Manuel Cordero Ferrera & Rosa Simancas Rodríguez (ed.), Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación 11, edition 1, volume 11, chapter 22, pages 423-434, Asociación de Economía de la Educación.
    4. Jesse Rothstein, 2019. "Inequality of Educational Opportunity? Schools as Mediators of the Intergenerational Transmission of Income," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(S1), pages 85-123.
    5. Mario I. Suárez & Alan R Dabney & Hersh C Waxman & Timothy P Scott & Adrienne O Bentz, 2021. "Exploring Factors that Predict STEM Persistence at a Large, Public Research University," International Journal of Higher Education, Sciedu Press, vol. 10(4), pages 161-161, August.
    6. Dur, Robert & Glazer, Amihai, 2008. "Subsidizing Enjoyable Education," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 1023-1039, October.
    7. Gandil, Mikkel Høst & Leuven, Edwin, 2022. "College Admission as a Screening and Sorting Device," IZA Discussion Papers 15557, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Raj Chetty & John N. Friedman & Emmanuel Saez & Nicholas Turner & Danny Yagan, 2020. "The Determinants of Income Segregation and Intergenerational Mobility: Using Test Scores to Measure Undermatching," NBER Working Papers 26748, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Rothstein, Jesse, 2022. "Qualitative information in undergraduate admissions: A pilot study of letters of recommendation," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    10. Bai, Chong-en & Chi, Wei & Qian, Xiaoye, 2014. "Do college entrance examination scores predict undergraduate GPAs? A tale of two universities," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 632-647.
    11. Judith Scott-Clayton & Peter M. Crosta & Clive R. Belfield, 2012. "Improving the Targeting of Treatment: Evidence from College Remediation," NBER Working Papers 18457, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Вербецкий Алексей Дмитриевич & Фридман Алла Александровна, 2016. "Политика Приема В Вузы И Конкуренция Абитуриентов," Economic policy Экономическая политика, CyberLeninka;Автономная некоммерческая организация «Редакция журнала “Экономическая политика”», vol. 11(5), pages 68-91.
    13. Jensen, Elizabeth J. & Wu, Stephen, 2010. "Early decision and college performance," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 517-525, August.
    14. Wu, Binzhen & Zhong, Xiaohan, 2014. "Matching mechanisms and matching quality: Evidence from a top university in China," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 196-215.
    15. Bergman, Peter & Kopko, Elizabeth & Rodriguez, Julio, 2021. "Using Predictive Analytics to Track Students: Evidence from a Seven-College Experiment," IZA Discussion Papers 14500, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Attali, Yigal & Neeman, Zvika & Schlosser, Analia, 2011. "Rise to the Challenge or Not Give a Damn: Differential Performance in High vs. Low Stakes Tests," IZA Discussion Papers 5693, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Chapman, Gabrielle & Dickert-Conlin, Stacy, 2012. "Applying early decision: Student and college incentives and outcomes," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 749-763.
    18. Dylan Conger & Mark C. Long, 2010. "Why Are Men Falling Behind? Gender Gaps in College Performance and Persistence," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 627(1), pages 184-214, January.
    19. Jesse Rothstein & Albert Yoon, 2006. "Mismatch in Law School," Working Papers 29, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Education Research Section..
    20. Rajeev Darolia & Cory Koedel, 2018. "High Schools And Students' Initial Colleges And Majors," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 36(4), pages 692-710, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cdl:cshedu:qt9hf3t044. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Lisa Schiff (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://escholarship.org/uc/cshe/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.