The prediction of the future performance of students from their past records

Abstract

This paper constitutes a report on a part of the work which we are doing in studying the value of the Aptitude or Placement Examination and of semester grades in predicting the future performance of our students.OurFreshman classes areconducted similarly to those in other institutions.In 1926-27, 879 students who had not had chemistry registered for General Chemistry. In the first week these students were given the Iowa Chemistry Aptitude Test, CT-1,A. From the results of this test the students were sectioned for quiz and lahoratory into groups of twenty-five students. There was no sectioning in the two hours devoted to lecture, demonstrations, and tests. For laboratory and quiz the whole class was divided into six groups of 150 to 200 students, depending solely upon the afternoon the pupil took laboratory. This group was then subdivided according to the Aptitude Test or term grades into groups of twentyfive students each. Thus on one afternoon the best twenty-five students would be in one group, the next best in another, etc. The lahoratory and quiz for any one group was under the same instructor. One important difficulty of this method lies in the fact that there are five or six best groups of twenty-five students each, where there should be only two or three (10% of class) of these groups.This sectioning according to ability was carried out throughout the three terms. The score made in the first term was used as a basis for sectioning in the second term, and similarly the score in the second term was taken as the basis for the sectioning in the third.The examinations given were largely of the objective type and graded by means of scores. The term grades in per cent were obtained from score grades. In each examination scores were plotted and a curve drawn to see how well the markings were distributed. During the latter part of the last term a group of 164 students took the Iowa Chemistry Training Examination. These examinations were scored in the Departments of Chemistry and Education of the University of Iowa.'Of the 164 students discussed by Dr. Jacob Comog, only 131 started in the fall and completed the work in a regular manner. It is the performance of these 131 students which we will discuss. We believe these *Read before the Division of Chemical Education of the American Chemical Society at St. Louis, April 17, 1928.' Cornog and Stoddard, "Chemistry Training of High-School and College Students," THIS JOURNAL, 6,85-92 (Jan., 1929).

Assessing the relation between language comprehension and performance in general chemistry

“…For example, math ability has received considerable attention in predictor studies (Kunhart et al, 1958;Schelar et al, 1963;Sieveking and Larson, 1969;Coley, 1973;Pickering, 1975;Andrews and Andrews, 1979;Ozsogomonyan and Loftus, 1979;Craney and Armstrong, 1985;Rixse and Pickering, 1985;Carmichael et al, 1986;Glover et al, 1991;Bunce and Hutchinson, 1993;Spencer, 1996;Wagner et al, 2002;Tai et al, 2005;Lewis, 2007, 2008; Leopold and Edgar, 2008). Other work has focused on relevant prior knowledge in chemistry, as measured by either ''placement tests'' (Scofield, 1927;Smith and Trimble, 1929;Hovey and Krohn, 1958;Schelar et al, 1963;Sieveking and Larson, 1969;Coley, 1973;Albanese et al, 1976;Hunter, 1976;Ozsogomonyan and Loftus, 1979;Niedzielski and Walmsey, 1982;Craney and Armstrong, 1985;Russell, 1994;McFate and Olmsted, 1999;Legg et al, 2001;Wagner et al, 2002;Pienta, 2003;Bentley and Gellene, 2005;Mills and Sweeney, 2009;Seery, 2009), or high school chemistry grades (Kunhart et al, 1958;Coley, 1973;Ozsogomonyan and L...…”

Predicting Students at Risk in General Chemistry Using Pre-semester Assessments and Demographic Information

“…Interest in predicting student performance in general chemistry dates back to the very early years of this Journal (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6), and the ability of the Toledo Exam (7 ), the California Chemistry Diagnostic Test (8), the SAT (9,10), and the ACT (11,12) to predict student performance in general chemistry courses is well documented. High school GPA and grades achieved in high school chemistry and mathematics classes have been used with some success (13).…”

A Six-Year Study of the Effects of a Remedial Course in the Chemistry Curriculum

“…Determining the preparedness of first-year college chemistry students has been on the minds of university educators for more than 75 years (1). Through the years, a large number of studies have examined correlations between the grade earned in a first-college level chemistry course and chemistry placement examination performance (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17), mathematics SAT or ACT scores (5,7,8,(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24), high school performance (6,7,(17)(18)(19)21), general intelligence and learning ability (6,9,17,(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30), and other criteria such as reading and English skills (19,23,31), or full-time versus part-time student status…”