Repeated Test Taking on the SAT: The Effects of Ethnicity, Gender, Financial Aid, and High School Location

Autor/in	Lynch, Lian
Titel	Repeated Test Taking on the SAT: The Effects of Ethnicity, Gender, Financial Aid, and High School Location
Quelle	(2012), (162 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit Ph.D. Dissertation, North Carolina State University
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Monographie
ISBN	978-1-3030-0809-2
Schlagwörter	Hochschulschrift; Dissertation; College Entrance Examinations; Ethnicity; Gender Differences; Student Financial Aid; School Choice; Demography; Scores; Statistical Significance; High School Seniors; College Bound Students; North Carolina; SAT (College Admission Test) + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Thesis; Dissertations; Academic thesis; Aufnahmeprüfung; Ethnizität; Geschlechterkonflikt; Finanzielle Beihilfe; Studienfinanzierung; Studienförderung; Choice of school; Schulwahl; Demografie
Abstract	The purpose of this study was to determine whether there was a significant relationship between repeated test taking on the SAT and several demographic measures. These measures included ethnicity (American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian/Asian American/Pacific Islander, Black/African American, Mexican/Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Other Hispanic/Latino/Latin American, White, Other, and Unreported); gender (male, female, unreported); need for financial aid (yes, no, unknown, unreported); or high school location (large city, medium-sized city, small city or town, suburban, rural, and unreported) for North Carolina State University applicants between 2003 and 2008. An additional goal was to investigate the implications the new SAT reporting option, Score Choice, could have on future applicants' scores. The study examined SAT scores submitted to North Carolina State University between 2003 and 2008 for its applicants, totaling 151,901 individual SAT scores. Overall, this study found there was a significant statistical relationship between repeatedly taking the SAT and ethnicity, gender, need for financial aid, and high school location. Furthermore, it found that the new SAT reporting policy, Score Choice, could indeed impact North Carolina State University undergraduate applicants' scores. On average, there was a within-person change in student SAT scores over time when looking at the North Carolina State University applicant pool between 2003 and 2008. Additionally, there was not a disadvantage to taking the SAT multiple times, as on average scores did not decrease across the selected population. This indicated that the more times students took the SAT, the greater the potential to increase their score. The findings also indicated that there were differences in whether students' scores increased with each additional attempt of the SAT based on ethnic background, gender, and need for financial aid. The SAT score that students would report through Score Choice was found to be related to ethnicity, gender, financial aid, and location of a student's high school. A paired samples t test revealed a statistically reliable difference between the score a student reports using Score Choice (the highest combination of math and verbal scores during one sitting) and the combination of an applicant's highest scores from each portion of the SAT to obtain the highest possible final SAT score ("superscore"). Therefore, it appears that the practice of taking the highest math and highest verbal score across all sittings of the SAT is the more beneficial to a student than the score submitted by Score Choice. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.] (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10