The College Board Scholastic Aptitude Test: An Overview of the Mathematical Portion

1978 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 168-180
Author(s):  
James S. Braswell
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Mathematics Education ◽  
Mathematics Teachers ◽  
Scholastic Aptitude Test ◽  
School Mathematics ◽  
High School Mathematics ◽  
Aptitude Test ◽  
College Board ◽  
Current Information ◽  
Scholastic Aptitude

From time to time I have been asked to speak to groups of high school mathematics teachers about the mathematical portion of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). This article affords an opportunity to provide current information about this test to a greater audience of mathematics teachers and others interested in mathematics education.

HOW VALUABLE IS THE S.A.T.?

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. A56-A56
Author(s):  
J. F. L.
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Scholastic Aptitude Test ◽  
Aptitude Test ◽  
Freshman Year ◽  
College Board ◽  
Scholastic Aptitude ◽  
School Grades ◽  
High School Grades ◽  
Admissions Directors

Most societies have some sort of rite of passage from childhood to adulthood. The aborigine in Australia send adolescents into the wilderness on a "walkabout." German noblemen prove their maturity by acquiring dueling scars. Americans have one in which their young people spend three high-pressured hours filling in little boxes. Anthropologists call it "Taking the Scholastic Aptitude Test." What do they measure? To anyone with lingering faith in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and truth-in-packaging, the answer is obvious: The Scholastic Aptitude Test measures scholastic aptitude. For that answer score zero. The test was created in 1926, when people still believed that there was something called intelligence that experts could measure and put a number on. Scholastic aptitude was its academic counterpart. Today no one believes that intelligence is that simple, and developers of the aptitude test have backed away from claiming to measure aptitude. What does the test tell colleges? The College Board says the examination predicts college grades in the freshman year. The technical term is predictive validity, which is measured on a scale of zero to one. Zero means that the result would be as random as using a zip code. A perfect 1.0 means that everyone with high test scores will get high grades, everyone with low scores will get low grades and so forth. Testmakers' research shows that college freshmen grades can be predicted with a validity of 0.42 based on the aptitude test, 0.48 based on high school grades and 0.55 if both are used. Since colleges already have students' grades, the incremental advantage of having the test scores is 0.07. Do test scores change admissions decisions? In a new book, "The Case Against the S.A.T.," James Crouse and Dale Trushei.m of the University of Delaware argue that the test is "valid but redundant." They conducted their own studies and concluded that by using high school grades alone, they could come to the same conclusion as admissions directors in all but 3 percent of cases-not enough, in their opinion, to justify the whole enterprise.

scholarly journals Junior high school mathematics teachers’ knowledge in calculators

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-93
Author(s):  
Isaac Bengre Taley ◽  
Matilda Sarpong Adusei
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Mathematics Teachers ◽  
Junior High School ◽  
Junior High ◽  
Real Life ◽  
School Mathematics ◽  
High School Mathematics ◽  
School Students ◽  
High School Mathematics Teachers

Helping junior high school students to use calculators and computers for problem solving and investigating real-life situations is an objective of the junior high school mathematics curriculum in Ghana. Ironically, there is a technological drought in junior high school mathematics instruction in Ghana, with a suspicion that mathematics teachers’ competency in the use of calculators for teaching may be the source of this lack of use. This study sought to establish a correlation between junior high school mathematics teachers’ competence and the motivation supporting the use of calculators in teaching.  A descriptive survey comprising of a test and questionnaire was used to collect data from junior high school mathematics teachers in an educational district in Ghana. Teacher characteristics such as educational attainment, age, and gender in relation to teachers’ competency in the use of calculators were discussed in the study. The results showed that about 70% of the teachers exhibited a low level of calculator competence. Besides, novice teachers outperformed expert teachers in the calculator competency-based test. Additionally, mathematics teachers’ enthusiasm for using calculators in teaching was directly associated with the teachers’ level of competency. The findings may send a signal to stakeholders in their efforts to revising the Ghana JHS curriculum in order to actualize the curriculum desire for the integration of technology in the teaching and learning of JHS mathematics.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document