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
Copyright Status
Unknown
Socpus ID
84861770002 (Scopus)
Source API URL
https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84861770002
STARS Citation
Dollinger, Stephen J. and Clark, M. H., "Test-Taking Strategy As A Mediator Between Race And Academic Performance" (2012). Scopus Export 2010-2014. 5462.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/scopus2010/5462