College Board Research
This section includes research on issues in education and on the College Board’s programs and services.
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Featured Studies
Common Core State Standards Alignment: ReadiStep, PSAT/NMSQT and SAT
This alignment study was conducted to demonstrate the existing correspondence between assessments in the College Board College Readiness Pathway and the Common Core State Standards. The College Board College Readiness Pathway is comprised of ReadiStep, the PSAT/NMSQT, and the SAT.
Is Performance on the SAT Related to College Retention?
This study examines the relationship between scores on the SAT and retention to the second year of college using student level data from the freshman class of 2006 at 106 four-year institutions. Results indicate that the SAT predicts second-year retention, with 95.5 percent of high performers returning but only 63.8 percent of low performers. While retention rates do vary by subgroups (i.e., gender, ethnicity, parental income, and highest parental education) and institutional characteristics (i.e., control, selectivity, size), these differences are moderated when SAT performance and other indicators of academic preparation are considered.
What Should Students Be Ready For in College? A Look at First-Year Course Work in Four-Year Postsecondary Institutions in the U.S.
This study examined the English, mathematics and natural sciences course work taken by students in their first year of college. Four-year postsecondary institutions (k = 110) provided first-year performance data for the first-time, first-year students that began college in the fall of 2006. As in previous research, composition is the most commonly taken English course. However, calculus was more popular than algebra within mathematics, and chemistry was more popular than biology within the natural sciences, both different findings from previous analyses of first-year college course work in those content areas.
An Investigation of Scale Drift for Arithmetic Assessment of ACCUPLACER
The current study was designed to extend the current literature to study scale drift in CAT as part of improving quality control and calibration process for ACCUPLACER, a battery of large-scale adaptive placement tests. The study aims to evaluate item parameter drift using empirical data that span four years from the ACCUPLACER Arithmetic assessment. The results suggest that the Arithmetic test maintained a reasonably stable scale in the years 2004 through 2007.