The contribution of high school grades and public examination results to the prediction of first year performance in post-secondary technical programs at the College of Trades and Technology

Colbourne, William George (1978) The contribution of high school grades and public examination results to the prediction of first year performance in post-secondary technical programs at the College of Trades and Technology. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the degree to which first-year academic performance at the College of Trades and Technology, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, could be predicted by a student's high school evaluation, public examination evaluation, and composite shared evaluation results. -- To carry out this study, a sample of 163 students was selected from courses in Business, Medical Sciences, and Engineering Technology at the College of Trades and Technology. For each subject in the sample final grades in each of the three measures of grade eleven performance were retrieved from the Department of Education public examination file and correlations were computed for each of these with first-year College grade point average. The major statistical procedure used in the study was the multiple regression analysis. The results of this investigation reveal that although the three predictors are approximately the same in their level of predictive accuracy, the combined shared evaluation results did predict significantly better than either of the two single predictors. -- It was recommended that reliability and validity studies of the shared evaluation system be undertaken in an attempt to improve predictive efficiency. Further study of the applicant pool, including the applicants' backgrounds, qualifications and other non-academic criteria, as well as a generalization of a study of this nature to investigate academic and non-academic criteria as predictors in other courses or other institutions, was recommended as a possible means of improving accurate prediction of academic performance.

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