Comparisons of four forms of assessment of high school seniors

The purpose of this study was to compare three different forms of assessment to GP A to determine what kind of relationship existed between them using scatterplots and correlation coefficients. Students were used in this study if they had scores for all four forms of assessment, which limited the sample population to the 222 out of a total senior class of 619 students. The forms of assessment were cumulative Grade Point Averages (GPA) for all English and math classes taken throughout their career at XHS, the Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT) scores for the year 2001, the Math, Reading and Language portions of the Scholastic Aptitude Test 9 Form T(also known as STAR) for the year 2001, and the Math, English and Language portions of the California Standards Test for the year 2001. After measuring the strength of the linear associations between these quantitative variables using correlation coefficients, it was determined there existed only moderate relationships between GP A's and the assessment forms with values for r all below .582 (English CST vs. GPA's). The scattering of all data points on all GP A comparisons further highlighted the disparity between GP A and test results. Two almost perfect positive relationships were between SAT verbal and CST English/language arts (r=.804), and Sat9 reading/language arts and CST English/language arts (r=.920). The results show more alignment between various tests than between GP A's and tests. The tests themselves were highly correlated, enabling one to predict performances on the other. The tests were assessing the student's mastery ofthe standards, and the GPA's were not or there would have been higher correlation coefficients between the tests and tighter groupings of the data plots on the graphs. Therefore, the GP A cannot be used as a predictor variable, or a way of anticipating\ud ASSESS:MENT COMPARISONS iv how a student will do on any of the three tests. The study highlights the need for further study on independent variables impacting GPA's and reasons there are not more correlations between grades and the forms of assessment now being used