Open AccessVALIDATION OF THE DESCRIPTIVE TESTS OF MATHEMATICS SKILLS
Author(s) -
Bridgeman Brent,
Kline Roberta G.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
ets research report series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.235
H-Index - 5
ISSN - 2330-8516
DOI - 10.1002/j.2333-8504.1980.tb01196.x
Subject(s) - precalculus , remedial education , mathematics education , psychology , predictive validity , test (biology) , variety (cybernetics) , descriptive statistics , mathematics , statistics , trigonometry , geometry , paleontology , biology
A variety of techniques were used to assess the validity of the Descriptive Tests of Mathematics Skills.(DTMS) for making placement decisions. DTMS tests were administered in 36 institutions that represented a broad spectrum of two‐year and four‐year colleges. A pre‐post design was used in seven institutions, with a pretest only in the other colleges. Results indicated that the DTMS tests were: (1) sensitive to gains from instruction in a single semester; (2) highly correlated with course grades obtained concurrently; (3) predictive of end of course grades when the DTMS tests were administered at the beginning of the course; (4) a better predictor of course grades than SAT‐Mathematical scores for remedial courses; (5) related to course difficulty as perceived by students; (6) capable of demonstrating a trait‐treatment interaction in a precalculus‐calculus sequence; and (7) related to the content of mathematics courses as judged by mathematics faculty members.