A preliminary investigation into the patterns of performance on a computerized adaptive test battery implications for admissions and placement

The fallibility of human judgment in the making of decisions requires the use of tests to enhance decision-making processes. Although testing is surrounded with issues of bias and fairness, it remains the best means of facilitating decisions over more subjective alternatives. As a country in transition, all facets of South African society are being transformed. The changes taking place within the tertiary education system to redress the legacy of Apartheid, coincide with an international trend of transforming higher education. One important area that is being transformed relates to university entrance requirements and admissions procedures. In South Africa, these were traditionally based on matriculation performance, which has been found to be a more variable predictor of academic success for historically disadvantaged students. Alternative or revised admissions procedures have been implemented at universities throughout the country, in conjunction with academic development programmes. However, it is argued in this dissertation that a paradigm shift is necessary to conceptualise admissions and placement assessment in a developmentally oriented way. Furthermore, it is motivated that it is important to keep abreast of advances in theory, such as item response theory (IRT) and technology, such as computerized adaptive testing (CAT), in test development to enhance the effectiveness of selecting and placing learners in tertiary programmes. This study focuses on investigating the use of the Accuplacer Computerized Placement Tests (CPTs), an adaptive test battery that was developed in the USA, to facilitate unbiased and fair admissions, placement and development decisions in the transforming South African context. The battery has been implemented at a university in the Eastern Cape and its usefulness was investigated for 193 participants, divided into two groups of degree programmes, depending on whether or not admission to the degree required mathematics as a matriculation subject. Mathematics based degree programme learners (n = 125) wrote three and non-mathematics based degree programme learners (n = 68) wrote two tests of the Accuplacer test battery. Correlations were computed between the Accuplacer scores and matriculation performance, and between the Accuplacer scores, matriculation performance and academic results. All yielded significant positive relationships excepting for the one subtest of the Accuplacer with academic performance for the non-mathematics based degree group. Multiple correlations for both groups indicated that the Accuplacer scores and matriculation results contribute unique information about academic performance. Cluster analysis for both groups yielded three underlying patterns of performance in the data sets. An attempt was made to validate the cluster groups internally through a MANOVA and single-factor ANOVAs. It was found that Accuplacer subtests and matriculation results do discriminate to an extent among clusters of learners in both groups of degree programmes investigated. Clusters were described in terms of demographic information and it was determined that the factors of culture and home language and how they relate to cluster group membership need further investigation. The main suggestion flowing from these findings is that an attempt be made to confirm the results with a larger sample size and for different cultural and language groups