Premium
Constructing a Universal Scale of High School Course Difficulty
Author(s) -
Bassiri Dina,
Schulz E. Matthew
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of educational measurement
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.917
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1745-3984
pISSN - 0022-0655
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-3984.2003.tb01101.x
Subject(s) - mathematics education , course (navigation) , scale (ratio) , psychology , engineering , geography , cartography , aerospace engineering
This study examined the usefulness of applying the Rasch rating scale model (Andrich, 1978) to high school grade data. ACT Assessment test scores (English, Mathematics, Reading, and Science Reasoning) were used as “common items” to adjust for different grading standards in individual high school courses both within and across schools. This scaling approach yielded an ACT Assessment‐adjusted high school grade point average (AA‐HSGPA) on a common scale across high schools and cohorts within a large public university. AA‐HSGPA was a better predictor of first‐year college grade point average (CGPA) than the regular high school grade point average. The best model for predicting CGPA included both the ACT composite score and AA‐HSGPA.