THE RELATION OF RATINGS AND EXPERIENCE VARIABLES TO TESTS OF DEVELOPED ABILITY PROFILES
Authors: French John W. 
Published: August 2014

Twelfth‐grade students in 42 secondary schools took the Tests of Developed Ability in the Spring of 1956. The students also supplied information about their background, experiences, interests, and estimations of their own ability. Their teachers provided school grades and nominations of students with outstanding ability in the fields covered by the tests. The resulting mass of data were explored by making tabulations of all variables against test scores, with breakdowns by sex and general ability level. The more interesting relationships were analyzed by correlation methods on one half of the data and cross‐validated on the other half. In order to present with maximum clarity what the tests were able to measure, profiles of mean test scores were plotted for groups of students having different experiences.

It was found that the TDA science tests successfully reflect scientific interest and experiences. They are related to course work in physics, chemistry, and mathematics, less so to courses in biology. Reading in science is very much related to test scores. Scientific hobbies are also related. However, beyond their mere association with science reading and course taking, the science hobbies seem to make a contribution to scores on Science Abilities but not to scores on Science Glossary. This suggests that the kind of trivial or esoteric facts learned in science hobbies are not covered by Science Glossary, while the general understandings which come through hobbies are measured by Science Abilities. While SAT‐M relates most closely to the strictly mathematics variables, neither SAT‐V nor SAT‐M approach the relationship of the science TDA's to the science rating and experience variables.

Social Studies Abilities, practically an alternate form of the Social Studies Achievement Test, is excessively sensitive to verbal comprehension and, consequently, reflects humanities rather than social studies experiences. Its relationship to writing hobbies, general reading, and language courses greatly overshadows some appropriate correlation with the reading of history and government. Courses other than American History are not related to the test scores. The test's close relationship to having taken American History in senior year suggests either that students can absorb more from American History courses as seniors than they can as lower‐classmen or that some items in the test depend upon quickly forgotten facts. The Social Studies Essay appears to share all of the faults of Social Studies Abilities and, in addition, has very low reliability.

In general, the humanities tests successfully reflect interests and experiences in their area. They are related to writing hobbies, to interest in English courses, to various kinds of reading interests, and to language instruction. While these relationships indicate that the humanities tests measure appropriate characteristics of the student, it should be noted that SAT‐V has substantially the same relationship. It is not possible to evaluate the relationship of the humanities tests to school courses, because substantially everyone took four years of English in high school, and the number taking music and art courses was extremely limited. While reading in the fields of music or art was found to be highly related to test scores, self ratings in music and art were related only slightly. Since it is likely that self ratings are based on actual performance, it appears that the humanities tests measure knowledge and appreciation in the field of music and art but are not significantly related to demonstrated talent.

Some ways to remedy the shortcomings of the tests are considered.