Coaching for the Sat: A Summary of the Summaries and an Update

Powers, Donald E.

doi:10.1002/j.2333-8504.1993.tb01543.x

Cited by 21 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Aún más, este puntaje de ganancia representa un aumento de 0.26 desviaciones estándar de la medida antes (3.5/13.49 = 0.26), tamaño del efecto que coincide de manera muy cercana con las estimaciones de tamaño del efecto que se han reportado en estudios internacionales y que se describen en la Introducción (Kulik et al, 1984;Powers, 1993;Baydar, 1990).…”

Section: Discussionunclassified

“…Por su parte Powers (1993) expresa que de los estudios meta-analíticos que se han realizado en el Educational Testing Service para estimar los efectos del entrenamiento en la prueba SAT, se puede concluir que la capacitación previa tiene un pequeño y consistente efecto que varía de 25 a 32 puntos de ganancia en la prueba, en promedio. Sabiendo que el SAT tiene una desviación estándar de 100 puntos, entonces los tamaños del efecto estarán precisamente entre 0.25 y 0.32 desviaciones estándar, en promedio.…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

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Efecto de una capacitación sobre los puntajes de la prueba de admisión de la Universidad de Costa Rica: una aproximación bayesiana

Rojas

Rojas-Rojas

Hernández

et al. 2015

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Efecto de una capacitación sobre los puntajes de la prueba de admisión de la Universidad de Costa Rica: una aproximación bayesiana * Resumen. Se usó un diseño cuasi-experimental con pre y post-test para estimar el efecto de una capacitación para la prueba de admisión de la Universidad Costa Rica, un test estandarizado que mide habilidades de razonamiento en contextos verbales y matemáticos. Cuatro colegios públicos del área metropolitana central del país participaron en el estudio, asignándose dos de ellos aleatoriamente al grupo de intervención y los otros dos al grupo de control, con 61 estudiantes en el primer grupo y 80 en el segundo. La intervención consistió de 5 sesiones de capacitación de 3 horas, utilizando como guía un manual desarrollado por una experta pedagoga, con enfoque constructivista. Las medidas antes y después fueron formas reducidas de la prueba de admisión 2014. La variable dependiente fue la diferencia entre ambas mediciones. El efecto de la capacitación fue de 3.5 puntos porcentuales y significativo, y se estimó utilizando un modelo bayesiano de regresión multinivel.Palabras clave. Evaluación de impacto, modelos jerárquicos bayesianos, efectos de capacitación, prueba de admisión a la Universidad, modelos multinivel. Abstract.A quasi-experimental design with pre and post-test was used to estimate training effects for the University of Costa Rica's admission test, a standardized exam that measures reasoning abilities in mathematical and verbal contexts. Four secondary public schools from the metropolitan central area of the country participated in the study; two of them were randomly assigned to the intervention group and the other two to the control group, with 61 students in the first group and 80 in the second. The intervention consisted of five three-hour training sessions, using a written guide developed by a pedagogy expert with a constructivist approach. Before and after measures were reduced test forms of the real admission test from the year 2014. The dependent variable was the difference between the two measures. The effect of the training was estimated using a multilevel Bayesian regression model with a significant magnitude of 3.5 percentage points.

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Section: Discussionunclassified

Section: Introductionunclassified

Efecto de una capacitación sobre los puntajes de la prueba de admisión de la Universidad de Costa Rica: una aproximación bayesiana

Rojas

Rojas-Rojas

Hernández

et al. 2015

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“…Students utilize several strategies in order to improve their SAT scores (Powers 1993). Roughly half take the exam multiple times and 15 percent take the test three or more times (Mehta and Gordon 2008).…”

Section: Sat Test Preparation As Shadow Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shadow Education, American Style: Test Preparation, the SAT and College Enrollment

2010

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Cross-national research finds that "shadow education" -educational activities outside of formal schooling -tends to confer advantages on already privileged students. Shadow education in the United States, such as test prep for college entrance exams, has received considerably less attention. Drawing on the National Education Longitudinal Study, we analyze the likelihood of participation in, and the implications of, SAT preparation. Social class inequalities in test preparation, particularly costly SAT courses and private tutoring, are notable and have at least moderate consequences for SAT scores and selective college enrollment. We also find racial/ethnic variations in the use of test preparation. We consider the implications of these findings for understanding shadow education, stratification and educational mobility in the United States.The SAT is arguably the single most important test for American high school students. Every year, more than 2 million young people take this standardized multiple-choice test and most four-year colleges and universities use the results to evaluate applicants from more than 20,000 disparate U.S. high schools (College Board 2007;Grodsky, Warren and Felts 2008). 1 In light of the growing importance of test scores for college admission over the past several decades (see Alon and Tienda 2007), it should not be surprising that SAT preparation services have developed into a lucrative multi-million dollar industry. The Princeton Review, one of the largest companies in this market, earned $110.4 million in revenue for its test preparation services in 2009 (Princeton Review 2010a). Such preparation includes expensive private courses and coaching as well as more moderately priced test prep manuals and computer software programs.A vociferous debate has emerged regarding the "fairness" of the SAT and the extent to which it should be used in the college admission process (Thernstrom and Glazer 1999; Lemann 1999). Indeed, over-reliance on SAT scores in college admissions has broad and clear-cut implications for issues of merit and diversity in the educational sorting and credentialing process (Alon and Tienda 2007). No less profound, especially for the question of merit, is the likelihood that access to and use of test preparation vary by the family background of students (Briggs Downloaded from 436 • Social Forces 89 (2) 2001; Powers and Rock 1998). Are children from well-resourced families more likely to participate in test preparation than poorer children? Does test preparation pay off in terms of higher examination scores and likelihood of admission to college, especially selective colleges? These questions resonate with prior work on educational stratification and its roots in family inequalities, but they also speak to the relevance of "shadow education" in the United States.Shadow education -a theoretical construct most often used in comparative education research -refers to educational activities, such as tutoring and extra classes, occurring outside of the formal channels of an educ...

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“…This can be explained in the following way: students who attend extracurricular courses and fill the gap in their knowledge perform better in graduation/entry exams and can make a better use of their scores (Powers, Rock, 1999;Powers, 1993;Prakhov, Yudkevich, 2012;Prakhov, 2013) by entering a selective university.…”

Section: Results Of Research Onmentioning

confidence: 99%

Barriers Limiting Access to Quality Higher Education in the Context of the USE: Family and School as Constraining Factors

Prakhov¹

2015

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Abstract. Despite massification of higher education in Russia and standardized entry examinations, candidates may still encounter some obstacles while trying to enter a university. Access to higher education can be limited at different levels: personal (lack of competencies required to enter a specific university), family (social and cultural status of parents), or institutional (the schooling system). Being affected by these factors, a candidate might only qualify for a non-selective university offering curricula of lower quality. This paper uses the data provided by the Monitoring of Education Markets and Organizations and by the ranking assessing the quality of admission to higher education institutions to evaluate the factors affecting the choice of university based on the level of its selectivity. It appears that opting for a selective higher education institution not only depends on the USE (Unified State Exam) points obtained by the candidate (the major criterion of admission in the Russian Federation) but is also determined by the factors that are not directly associated with the candidate's skills: father's education, financial standing of the family, its cultural capital, school characteristics (type of school, specialization in the class), and the amount of financial investments in test preparation courses. All together, these factors challenge the equality of opportunities for candidates and the accessibility of quality higher education for students from low-income families.

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Coaching for the Sat: A Summary of the Summaries and an Update

Cited by 21 publications

References 18 publications

Efecto de una capacitación sobre los puntajes de la prueba de admisión de la Universidad de Costa Rica: una aproximación bayesiana

Efecto de una capacitación sobre los puntajes de la prueba de admisión de la Universidad de Costa Rica: una aproximación bayesiana

Shadow Education, American Style: Test Preparation, the SAT and College Enrollment

Barriers Limiting Access to Quality Higher Education in the Context of the USE: Family and School as Constraining Factors

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