skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Attention:

The NSF Public Access Repository (PAR) system and access will be unavailable from 11:00 PM ET on Friday, May 16 until 2:00 AM ET on Saturday, May 17 due to maintenance. We apologize for the inconvenience.


Title: Pilot Study to Develop an Augmented Student Support Needs Scale to Address the Needs of HBCU Students
The authors completed a pilot study to examine the original Student Support Needs Scale (SSNS') and alternative forms. They assessed how the items were related to each other, how SSNS versions correlated with each other, and the SSNS versions associations with measures of student attitudes and performance. Eighty students from a historically Black college and university participated. SSNS 10-item- and 5-item-per-scale form s were created. They were compared with the original, to each other, and to other measures. The coefficients related to how items related to each other indicated that the alternative form s had similar to better correspondence between related items than the original scales. The 5-item-per-scale version was used as the augmented SSNS (SSNS-A). SSNS-A correlations with measures o f student attitudes and performance were generally in the expected direction. Implications are discussed in regard to reliability and validity of the SSNS-A.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1719262
PAR ID:
10223513
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
The Journal of Negro education
Volume:
88
Issue:
3
ISSN:
0022-2984
Page Range / eLocation ID:
213-228
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. null (Ed.)
    While many studies have demonstrated the efficacy of programs designed to increase underrepresented minority participation, this article establishes a guiding theoretical model which examines why such programs might work. Theoretical models are often used to support curricular innovation by specifying guidelines for how to design new programs intended to broaden participation in STEM. The theoretical model of the Performance Pyramid was used as the foundation to develop intrusive Peer Partnership Learning (PPL) communities and develop a measure of student needs. The PPL communities were designed for students to simultaneously take College Algebra and General Biology I and involved weekly sessions led by trained PPL leaders to reinforce course content and work on biology projects with imbedded math content. The augmented SSNS (SSNS-A) was developed to measures these students needs that are directly related to the Performance Pyramid constructs. In addition, other outcomes measures were selected to identify, analyze and address the barriers to student performance in both courses related to the seven support systems of the Performance Pyramid. This theory-based program was developed to (a) advance and test pedagogical linkages between biological and mathematical concepts; (b) improve, test, and refine the assessment instruments, and (c) test the acceptability and efficacy of a fully integrated biology-math curriculum on student performance and attitudes. 
    more » « less
  2. Smith, Richard (Ed.)
    Lengthy standardized assessments decrease instructional time while increasing concerns about student cognitive fatigue. This study presents a methodological approach for item reduction within a complex assessment setting using the Problem Solving Measure for Grade 6 (PSM6). Five item-reduction methods were utilized to reduce the number of items on the PSM6, and each shortened instrument was evaluated through validity evidence for test content, internal structure, and relationships to other variables. The two quantitative methods (Rasch model and point-biserial) resulted in the best psychometrically performing shortened assessments but were not representative of all content subdomains, while the three qualitative (content preservation) methods resulted in poor psychometrically performing assessments that retained all subdomains. Specifically, the ten-item Rasch and ten-item point-biserial shortened tests demonstrated the overall strongest validity evidence, but future research is needed to explore the psychometric performance of these versions in a new independent sample and the necessity for subdomain representation. Implications for the study provide a methodological framework for researchers to use and reduce the length of existing instruments while identifying how the various reduction strategies may sacrifice different information from the original instrument. Practitioners are encouraged to carefully examine to what extent their reduced instrument aligns with their pre-determined criteria. 
    more » « less
  3. Research on spatial thinking requires reliable and valid measures of individual differences in various component skills. Spatial perspective taking (PT)-the ability to represent viewpoints different from one's own-is one kind of spatial skill that is especially relevant to navigation. This study had two goals. First, the psychometric properties of four PT tests were examined: Four Mountains Task (FMT), Spatial Orientation Task (SOT), Perspective-Taking Task for Adults (PTT-A), and Photographic Perspective-Taking Task (PPTT). Using item response theory (IRT), item difficulty, discriminability, and efficiency of item information functions were evaluated. Second, the relation of PT scores to general intelligence, working memory, and mental rotation (MR) was assessed. All tasks showed good construct validity except for FMT. PPTT tapped a wide range of PT ability, with maximum measurement precision at average ability. PTT-A captured a lower range of ability. Although SOT contributed less measurement information than other tasks, it did well across a wide range of PT ability. After controlling for general intelligence and working memory, original and IRT-refined versions of PT tasks were each related to MR. PTT-A and PPTT showed relatively more divergent validity from MR than SOT. Tests of dimensionality indicated that PT tasks share one common PT dimension, with secondary task-specific factors also impacting the measurement of individual differences in performance. Advantages and disadvantages of a hybrid PT test that includes a combination of items across tasks are discussed. 
    more » « less
  4. This study explored an alternative approach to assessing individuals’ word knowledge by gauging the ability to recognize subtle similarities and differences among associated terms. Informed by the theoretical and empirical work on relational reasoning, the Measure of Vocabulary Knowledge through Relational Reasoning (MVKR2) was developed and validated. Participants were 338 college students who completed the MVKR2, the Test of Relational Reasoning (TORR), and released items from the SAT Verbal and Math tests. The TORR and SAT tests were administered to examine the convergent and concurrent validities of the MVKR2. Findings from item confirmatory analyses and correlations demonstrated that the MVKR2 is a reliable and valid measure of vocabulary knowledge for college-age students. In addition, fluid relational reasoning ability was associated with the performance on this novel measure, but the association with vocabulary knowledge was stronger. When examined on the scale and item levels, the contribution of fluid relational reasoning varied across scales and items within each scale. This study offered an alternative way to examine vocabulary knowledge that has implications for future empirical research and instructional practice. 
    more » « less
  5. Large-scale standardized tests are regularly used to measure student achievement overall and for student subgroups. These uses assume tests provide comparable measures of outcomes across student subgroups, but prior research suggests score comparisons across gender groups may be complicated by the type of test items used. This paper presents evidence that among nationally representative samples of 15-year-olds in the United States participating in the 2009, 2012, and 2015 PISA math and reading tests, there are consistent item format by gender differences. On average, male students answer multiple-choice items correctly relatively more often and female students answer constructed-response items correctly relatively more often. These patterns were consistent across 34 additional participating PISA jurisdictions, although the size of the format differences varied and were larger on average in reading than math. The average magnitude of the format differences is not large enough to be flagged in routine differential item functioning analyses intended to detect test bias but is large enough to raise questions about the validity of inferences based on comparisons of scores across gender groups. Researchers and other test users should account for test item format, particularly when comparing scores across gender groups. 
    more » « less