Deborah Fontaine Dr. Susan Lang ENGL5365 August 2, 2010

 Florida State HB 1545 establishes that all students who complete the last course in the developmental English sequence must take and pass the Florida College Basic Skills Exit Exam.  The exam contains two parts:  Paragraph/Essay written response (direct assessment)  40-question multiple choice exam (indirect assessment)

 At Northwest Florida State College (NWFSC), the exit exam is administered after successful completion of the requirements for ENC0080 College Prep English B.  Students must earn a combined score of 75% to pass the exam and, ultimately, the course to move on to ENC1101 Freshman Composition.

 Veal and Husdon (1983) found student performance on multiple-choice grammar tests match with holistically scored written assessments.  Contrastingly, Gottshalk, Swineford, & Coffman (1996) determined that multiple-choice grammar tests predicted writing performance more accurately than holistically graded essay scores.  While Bennett, Rock, and Wang (1991) and Culpepper and Ramsdell (1982) found that direct assessments complement multiple-choice assessments.

 Is the indirect assessment (40-question multiple choice exam) of the Florida State College Basic Skills Exit Test an accurate predictor of success in follow-on English courses?  Is the direct assessment (paragraph/essay writing sample) of the Florida State College Basic Skills Exit Test an accurate predictor of success in follow-on English courses?

 Quantitative study with data collected from two sources:  ENC0080 instructors  NEXUS (student data base)  Study timeframe:  Fall 2008 through Fall 2009  Data analyzed using Pearson correlation through Excel

83 Eligible to take Exit Exam 80 go to ENC pass ENC1101 (“C” or higher) 32 fail ENC ineligible to progress ENC0080 Direct Assessment 83 Eligible to take Exit Exam 79 go to ENC pass ENC1101 (“C” or higher) 30 fail ENC ineligible to progress ENC0080 Indirect Assessment 96% 60% 40% 4% 95% 5% 38% 62%

83 Eligible to take Exit Exam 80 go to ENC pass ENC1101 (“C” or higher) 32 fail ENC ineligible to progress ENC0080 Direct and Indirect Assessments 40% 4% 96% 60% Pass with “C” or better Pass ENC1101 w/ “C” or better Fail ENC1101 Direct96%60%40% Indirect95%62%38% Combined96%60%40% Combined Results

 Direct Assessmentr=  Indirect Assessmentr=  Combined Assessmentsr= A comparison of the scores and the grades earned in the follow-on ENC1101 course demonstrates a lack of covariance between the assessment and ENC1101 grade.

 This study indicates that neither the direct or indirect section of the Florida State College Basic Skills Exit Test is an accurate predictor of student success in follow-on English courses.  Areas of future research will become more important as the results of this study did not yield a strong correlation between the exam and following English course.

 Expand study over several years  This indicates that of the students who pass the exit exam, it can be predicted that 56-60% will pass ENC1101 with a “C” or better. However, further studies need to be conducted to determine the validity of this prediction.  Expand the breadth the study  Include other courses designated “writing intensive” according to Florida’s Gordon Rule requirements  Expand study to include a random sample of other institutions within the Florida College System

Questions? Thanks for your attention!