Date of Degree

2024

Degree Name

Ed.D. (Doctor of Education)

Department

Department of Counseling and Higher Education (CAHE)

Director

Hu, Xiaodan

Committee Members

Gudrun Nyunt, Jacqueline Mac

Keywords

community college placement, college readiness, high school gpa, multiple measures

Abstract

ABSTRACT

CAN HIGH SCHOOL GPA PREDICT COLLEGE-LEVEL COURSE SUCCESS AT COMMUNITY COLLEGE?

Joseph M. Bergman, Ed.D.

Department of Counseling and Higher Education

Northern Illinois University, 2024

Xiaodan Hu, Director

In an effort to find a more convenient, lower-cost college readiness measure to increase access to college-level courses for more students without increasing student stress and sacrificing student success, Aurum Community College piloted the use of high school GPA as a college readiness measure while continuing to use the established standardized placement exam. Based on the placement measure used, this quantitative study examined student success in an introductory college-level composition course, ENG 101, for the student sample and then performed subgroup analysis based on race and ethnicity, biological sex, student age during the composition course, Pell eligibility, and size of high school attended.

The data was collected at a medium-sized midwestern community college from the fall semester of 2020 through the spring semester of 2022. The chi-square test of independence was performed to determine if there was a difference in ENG 101 success based on the placement measure used. The analysis showed a significant difference between placement exam student success and high school GPA success in ENG 101. Students placed using high school GPAs were disproportionately associated with success in ENG 101.

The subgroup chi-square test analysis showed that high school GPA placement was disproportionately associated with ENG 101 success for white students, male and female students, students ages 17-18, students who were not Pell-eligible, and students from high schools with enrollments up to 999 students. For all the other subgroups: Black, Hispanic, and Multiracial students, students ages 19 and older, Pell-eligible students, and students attending high schools with 1000 or more students, the chi-square analysis showed no significant difference in ENG 101 success based on placement measure used. For all subgroups examined, students who were placed based on their high school GPA performed as well as or better than those placed based on the placement exam.

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses and dissertations are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors, unless otherwise indicated.

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