The Nelson-Denny Reading Test as a Predictor of College Freshman Grades

Abstract

This study represents an attempt to determine the difficulty level, the internal consistency, and the usefulness of Form C of the Nelson-Denny Reading Test (NDRT) as a predictor of freshman grades at a public, midwestern university. The 2,122 entering freshmen (37.7% male) produced a high school mean grade point average (GPA) of 3.16, a college freshmen GPA of 2.63, an American College Testing Program (ACT) Composite score of 20.6 and a NDRT of 82.8--7 points above the NDRT norm group. The internal consistency coefficients (Kuder Richardson formula 21) of the NDRT were .90 for the 100-item vocabulary section, .69 for the 36-item comprehension section, and .91 for the combined score. The NDRT was correlated positively with the verbal portion of the College Board Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT-V) (.79), the ACT Composite score (.71), high school GPA (.39), and college freshman GPA (.33), as well as with other indicators of academic ability.

High school GPA was the single most valid predictor of college freshman GPA (.56), but combinations of high school GPA and the NDRT increased the prediction of college GPA to .58. Combining high school GPA and ACT composite scores produced a predictive validity of .60, whereas high school GPA and SAT-V and SAT-Mathematics produced a predictive validity of .61. Adding the NDRT to a prediction equation already containing high school GPA and either ACT or SAT scores did not improve the prediction. College grades in large freshman courses were similarly, but less effectively, predictable.