Title

Test-Taking Strategy As A Mediator Between Race And Academic Performance

Keywords

Academic performance; Race; Test-taking strategy; Vocabulary

Abstract

The issue of race differences in standardized test scores and academic achievement continues to be a vexing one for behavioral scientists and society at large. Ellis and Ryan (2003) suggested that a portion of the cognitive-ability test performance differences between White/Caucasian-American and Black/African-American college students could be attributed to the greater use of ineffective test-taking strategies by the latter group. We replicated and extended their findings by using three outcomes-exam scores in a single academic course, self-reported GPA, and a measure of verbal abilities. Ellis and Ryan reported that the variance in cognitive-ability test performance explained by race dropped by 48% (i.e., from 21% originally to 11%) when controlling for the mediator, ineffective test-taking strategies. Our results were less dramatic, but also indicated that ineffective test-taking strategies accounted for 19% to 25% of the variance originally explained by race. In addition, reminiscent of the disidentification effect, supplementary analyses showed that academic/intellectual self-perceptions correlated with the criterion measures but only for White participants. These results suggest that a portion of the race difference on test scores might be accounted for by test-taking strategies. © 2012 Elsevier Inc..

Publication Date

1-1-2012

Publication Title

Learning and Individual Differences

Volume

22

Issue

4

Number of Pages

511-517

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2012.03.010

Socpus ID

84861770002 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84861770002

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