The Effect of Gender and Age on PPST Performance in an Urban Teacher Education Program

In the state of Nebraska as in many other states, Education students are required to take the Pre-Professional Skills Test (PPST) as a way of assuring that potential teachers possess fundamental skills in the essential areas of reading, writing and mathematics. The PPST, developed and published by the Educational Testing Service (ETS, 1986), consists of a battery of three subtests designed to provide objective, standardized measures of essential proficiency in reading, mathematics and writing (Goodison, 1985). Each subtest consists of multiple choice questions: 40 in reading, 40 in math, and 45 in writing. An essay is also included with the score of the writing section reflecting a combination of the written essay and multiple choice items correct (Hicken, 1992). While this test has been widely used across the nation, a review of the literature found little research had been done with regard to the performance of reentering adults on a test of basic skills which could be assumed had not been a part of their recent learning experiences. Institutions of higher education in urban settings typically attract large numbers of adult students (over 23 years of age) while, nationally, colleges of Education generally report more female than male students. The College of Education at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) is representative of both trends with 71% of its current undergraduate students being female vs. 29% male and a total of 47% of the Education students being reentering adults. Frequently associated with these trends are concerns commonly voiced by adult students that they will be outperformed by their younger, more traditional age counterparts (Harrington, Davis and Harrington, 1992). In addition, a widely held belief is that men score higher on standardized math tests while women score higher on standardized tests measuring language abilities (Daly, Bell & Korinek, 1987). This study was designed to assess the validity of these beliefs and to determine what the ramifications might be for teacher education programs in urban settings. The research question, therefore, became is there any difference on any of the three subtests of the PPST scores when comparing for gender and age, and are there any interactions between gender and age on those same scores? Method Variables The dependent variables in this study are the ex post facto scores on all three subtests of the PPST (reading, math and writing). The organismic variables, which functioned as independent variables in analyzing the results, were gender and age. Age differences were grouped into tow categories: traditional (23 years old and younger) and non-traditional (24 years old and older). Sample The subjects were 318 students who took the PPST in the college of Education at a mid-sized (17,000), midwestern urban university during a recent two-year period. Scores were obtained via the College of Education from approximately 500 students who were identified by social security number (SSN) only. Listed with the SSN were each individual's birthdate and gender and the scores received on all three subtest on the PPST. Since only about one-third of the students (172) on the list were male (which corresponds closely with the current male enrollment in the College of Education), it was decided to use only half of the females listed in order to have approximately equal numbers of males and females for the study. All females on the list were assigned a number in numerical order and then using a Table of Random Numbers (Borg and Gall, 1983). Half of the females were randomly selected for the study. The resultant N for females was 159 with the total N equalling 318. Of the 318 subjects, 188 were nontraditional and 130 were traditional age students. Analysis Procedures The ex post facto data was examined using a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) as it possessed the capability to determine whether group scores on one or more variables differed significantly from each other and whether there was any significant interaction between the two variables. …