The Prediction of Academic Achievement in Graduate Study in Education

Abstract

From a total group of 653 graduate students who had completed successfully one of several available master's degree programs in a professional school of education at a large state university in a major metropolitan area, various samples and subsamples differentiated by sex were formed depending upon the availability of scores for several standardized aptitude and achievement tests and the presence of undergraduate grades. Correlational analyses of relevant data revealed the following conclusions: (a) the three scales (Verbal, Quantitative, and Total) of the Undergraduate Record Examinations would appear to be more valid than the corresponding scales of the Graduate Record Examinations Aptitude Test as predictors of academic success in the graduate programs leading to the master's degree; (b) undergraduate grades show about equal promise for men and women in forecasting level of achievment in graduate work; (c) standardized achievement and scholastic aptitude test scores afford greater predictive validity for women than for men; and (d) optimally weighted composites of predictor variables can be anticipated to yield validity coefficients significantly higher than those associated with single predictor measures.