Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Does The Sat Predict Academic Achievement And Academic Choices At Macalester College?, Jing Wen

Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science Honors Projects

This paper examines the predictive power of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) for Macalester students’ college success and academic choices. We use linear regression to study whether the SAT can predict students’ first year or four-year grades. Using Kullback-Leibler divergence and classification trees, we also examine the SAT’s predictive ability for other aspects of students’ academic experience, for example, major selection, or academic division of study. After controlling for major and course level, we find that the SAT does not explain a large proportion of the variability in Macalester students’ college success. However, the SAT does provide some useful information …

A Comparative Study Of Exact Versus Propensity Matching Techniques Using Monte Carlo Simulation, Mukaria J. J. Itang'ata

Dissertations

Often researchers face situations where comparative studies between two or more programs are necessary to make causal inferences for informed policy decision-making. Experimental designs employing randomization provide the strongest evidence for causal inferences. However, many pragmatic and ethical challenges may preclude the use of randomized designs. In such situations, subject matching provides an alternative design approach for conducting causal inference studies. This study examined various design conditions hypothesized to affect matching procedures’ bias recovery ability.

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Evaluation Of Student Outcomes In Online Vs. Campus Biostatistics Education In A Graduate School Of Public Health, John Mcgready, Ron Brookmeyer

Ron Brookmeyer

Objective: To compare student outcomes between concurrent online and on-campus sections of an introductory biostatistics course offered at a U.S. school of public health in 2005. Methods: Enrolled students (95 online, 92 on-campus) were invited to participate in a confidential online survey. The course outcomes were compared between the two sections adjusting for differences in student characteristics. Results: Seventy-two online (76%) and 66 (72%) on-campus enrollees participated. Unadjusted final exam scores for the online and on-campus sections were respectively 85.1 and 86.3 (p = 0.50) in term 1, and 87.7 and 86.9 (p=0.58) in term 2. After adjustment for student …