Using Old and New SAT® Scores for Admission: A Closer Look at Concordant Scores in Predictive Models. Research Report 2016-17
Author: Marini, Jessica P.
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: College Entrance Examinations,Scores,College Admission,Decision Making,Comparative Analysis,Evaluation Methods,Prediction,Models,Predictive Measurement,Indexes,Admission Criteria,Grade Point Average,Evidence Based Practice,Predictive Validity

During the transition period between the use of exclusively old SAT® scores and the use of exclusively new SAT scores, college admission offices will be receiving both types of scores from students. Making an admission decision based on new SAT scores can be challenging at first because institutions have methods, procedures, and models based on the use of old SAT scores. To ease this transition, admission offices can use a concordance table to translate new SAT scores to comparable old SAT scores to use with their existing decision methods. Concordance tables are carefully developed tools that allow test scores from different tests covering similar content to be comparable to each other (Dorans, 2004). The study presented continues to establish evidence for the appropriate and sound use of concordant scores in admission decisions. It builds upon recent applied concordance research that examined first-year grade point average (FYGPA) predictions made with native and concordant scores using the old SAT scores and simulated ACT scores (Marini et al., 2016). This study found that comparisons made between predictions using native or concordant scores in native models were highly consistent within student and across student and institutional subgroups. While the findings from Marini et al. (2016) are useful and provide initial support for the use of concordant scores in native score models, the ACT scores in that study were simulated for each student in the sample using the known relationship between SAT and ACT scores. To make the strongest argument for using and understanding both native and concordant scores in admission decisions, it would have been ideal to have access to native (actual) scores on both assessments studied. The current study design can now account for this and advance the findings of the previous study; it examines two sets of native scores linked in a publically available concordance table. Using data from a pilot study of the redesigned SAT, students in this sample have both native old SAT and native new SAT scores. This makes it possible to make FYGPA prediction comparisons between both native and concordant scores. This research is important during the transition period between the use of old and new SAT scores in college admission decisions. For the first year or more of the administration of the new SAT, students may submit to college admission offices either old or new SAT scores, depending on when a student took the SAT. Before an admission office can develop a new predictive model using new SAT scores (which is not possible until adequate admission and outcome data are collected), institutions will need to rely on the concordance tables provided by the College Board to transform new SAT scores to old SAT scores to use in preexisting models developed with old SAT scores. Institutions are understandably looking for evidence and reassurance that this practice is sensible and appropriate. The current study was undertaken to explore this issue.