Comparative Validities of Standardized Academic Self-Concept Scales and Achievement Test Measures and of Teacher Ratings of Citizenship and Effort in Forecasting Performance of Junior High School Students

Abstract

For a sample of 240 junior high school (eighth-grade) students (128 boys and 112 girls) from a suburban middle-class community in Orange County, California, criterion-related validities of each of the five scales of the academic self-concept measure Dimensions of Self-Concept (DOSC), of each of six achievement subtests from the SRA Assessment Survey, and of two teacher ratings pertaining to student citizenship and student effort were found relative to (a) three criterion measures representing grade point average (GPA) earned during three semesters in all subjects, in English, and in Mathematics and (b) scores received on four district-prepared proficiency examinations in Mathematics, Reading, English, and Social Science. In addition to zero-order correlations between each predictor variable and each criterion measure, multiple regression analyses were completed between each of the three GPA indices and sets of predictors associated with the five DOSC scales, six SRA Assessment Survey subtests, and the two teacher ratings. In conjunction with the fact that nearly all validity coefficients were statistically significant, differential patterns of association did occur as evidenced by the following conclusions: (1) measures of a multidimensional academic self-concept construct appear to be more closely related to GPA indicators of academic success than to scores afforded by district-developed proficiency examinations; (2) standardized achievement tests in comparison with academic self-concept scales are more predictive of school performance whether evaluated by teacher grades or objective proficiency examinations designed to portray school district objectives; and (3) teacher ratings of student effort are more predictive of grades that teachers assign than are scores either on standardized achievement tests or on self-concept scales, but are generally less predictive of performance on proficiency tests in basic skills than are the standardized achievement tests of comparable abilities.