Contributions of the Graduate Record Examinations and the National Teacher Examinations to the Prediction of Graduate School Success

Abstract

Background of problem?During the past six years, the School of Graduate Studies of South Carolina State College has administered the Profile Tests, the Aptitude Test, and the Advanced Test in Education of the Graduate Record Examinations to all of its students at the beginning of their graduate program. Further, since practically all of its students have been teachers or prospective teachers in South Carolina, where the score on the Common Examination of the National Teacher Examinations is one of the three criteria of teacher certification, a large majority of the students had taken the Common Examination of the National Teacher Examinations prior to their entrance into the School of Graduate Studies. Finally, the School of Graduate Studies has required, as one of its bases of admission, that each applicant for admission submit a copy of his of ficial National Teacher Examinations score card. The purpose in collecting scores for students on the Graduate Record Examinations and on the National Teacher Examinations was to test, whenever sufficient criterion data became available, the contributions of the two sets of examinations, along with undergraduate grade-point averages, to the prediction of graduate school success at South Carolina State College. The conviction underlying this purpose was that the scores on these examinations should be tested rigorously before they are employed as one of the bases of admission to the School of Graduate Studies.