There is substantial variability in the degree to which the SAT and high school grade point average (HSGPA) predict first-year college performance at different institutions. This paper demonstrates the usefulness of multilevel modeling as a tool to uncover institutional characteristics that are associated with this variability. In a model that…

Examines structural features of grade point averages (GPAs) and offers examples showing that GPAs cannot consistently determine class rank since class rank is sometimes permuted with arbitrary change of scale. Notes relativistic efforts to resolve inconsistencies are insufficient. Discusses the function of GPAs as predictors of academic…

Joreskog's procedure for the analysis of simplex models was used to test Humphreys' assertion that eight semesters of undergraduate grade point averages have a simplex form. The assertion was confirmed, and precise estimates of unattenuated correlations and reliabilities were also obtained. (Author/JKS)

A summary of the technical problems encountered in performing Bayesian m group regression is given. Grade-point averages for students entering a vocational-technical program are predicted using ability assessments from the Career Planning Profile (CPP), a development of The American College Testing Program (ACT). The theory derived by Lindley (see…

Previous research has studied the effects of different methods of item option weighting on the reliability and concurrent and predictive validity of achievement tests. Increases in reliability are generally found, but with mixed results for validity. Several methods of producing option weights, (i.e., Guttman internal and external weights and…

High school and college grades are suggested to have the nature of ordinal scales rather than interval scales; hence the median is the appropriate and preferred average, rather than the mean. The use of a median grade point average has some of the major advantages of pass-fail grading. Assuming grades to be ordinal rather than interval data…