Career Recommendation System for High-School Seniors based on Government Standardized-Tests Results

When it comes to choosing a career path, senior high-school students struggle to make a decision. The purpose of this research is to help such students select a career track by providing a match-based scored recommendation of academic and professional routes, promoting the development of the government-aided quality educational system by reducing the student dropout. Recommendations are based on the results of the Colombian standardized Saber 11 examination (which is similar to SAT [Scholastic Assessment Test] scores in the U.S.), and how other students with similar characteristics (demographic, socio-economic, family information) performed in their undergraduate tests and the Colombian standardized Saber Pro exam (which is similar to GRE -Graduate Record Examination- scores in the U.S.). Collected information was bundled with their career choice and the recommendation system was developed using Machine Learning and Deep Learning techniques, ROC (Receiver operating characteristic) curve was computed for each career and found on average the AUC (Area under the ROC Curve) score was 0.86 despite the high variability between them. In addition, a business metric was built and evaluated.

Efectos de la educación diferenciada en la inteligencia y el desempeño académico en estudiantado sobredotado en México

El estudiantado sobredotado es parte de una minoría de la población escolar. Sin embargo, un alto porcentaje de él no se le atiende por la falta de estrategias psicoeducativas. En América Latina un modelo para escuelas de sobredotados/as es el Programa de Potenciación Intelectual (PPI), diseñado para desarrollar la inteligencia y desempeño académico por medio de estimulación cognitiva intensiva y educación diferenciada. Este artículo trata sobre los resultados de una investigación con 1600 estudiantes sobredotados/as evaluando los efectos del PPI (de 2083 horas anuales efectivas) en el Coeficiente Intelectual (CI) y las puntuaciones académicas en la prueba Scholastic Assessment Test SAT en un periodo de dos años. El proyecto contó con una población control de 400 estudiantes sobredotados/as en enfoque escolar tradicional. Se encontraron diferencias estadísticamente significativas (P<0.05) en el CI y las puntuaciones SAT entre el efecto de la educación diferenciada y educación tradicional, así como una correlación significativa entre el número de horas en programas diferenciados con ambos indicadores (CI y SAT). Asimismo, se identificó un incremento medio del CI en 19,5% al recibir la educación diferenciada, mientras que el control disminuyó 10,7% en el mismo periodo. Las puntuaciones académicas del SAT aumentaron 19,7% en el grupo especializado mientras que el control subió solo 2,9%. Este estudio mostró el efecto significativo de un sistema educativo especial de sobredotados/as en México, y sugiere la efectividad del PPI como solución al problema de su atención.

Patterns of variation in the interplay of language ability and general reading comprehension ability in L2 reading

This study aims to investigate patterns of variation in the interplay of L2 language ability and general reading comprehension skills in L2 reading, by comparing item-level effects of test-takers’ results on L1 and L2 reading comprehension tests. The material comes from more than 500,000 people tested on L1 (Swedish) and L2 (English) in the Swedish Scholastic Assessment Test (2010–16). The statistical analysis found no significant correlations between degree of L2 language focus and text length or sentence length, nor could any significant differences be found with regard to the language focus in main point, inference or retrieval items. However, a statistically significant difference was found between the rational deletion gap test and the two sections based on content questions on long and short texts, in the sense that the former to a greater degree measures language ability. Moreover, even though the gap test consists of semantic deletion only, specifically aiming to test higher-order skills, the effect size by different measures was consistently large (Cohen’s d around 0.8). Finally, an additional, more exploratory, qualitative study supported the connection between the distribution of the operationalized language focus value and an item’s relative focus on higher- or lower-level reading skills. Furthermore, it gave some indication that strongly language-focused content question items may be characterized by intra-sentential complexity relating to syntactic parsing and semantic-proposition encoding more than to unfamiliar vocabulary. However, with regard to the results of the qualitative section, more research is clearly needed before it is possible to draw any general conclusions.

State IQ and Suicide Rates in the United States

Previous findings pertaining to the direction (positive or negative) of the ecological correlation between intelligence and suicide rates in the USA have been conflicting. Using novel state IQ estimates, derived from the Scholastic Assessment Test, the American College Test, these tests combined, or the National Assessment of Educational Progress state scores, these estimates were not consistently associated to state suicide rates. Whereas ACT-derived state IQ was significantly positively correlated with suicide rates, the correlation with composite ACT-SAT-derived state IQ was significantly negative and with both SAT-derived and NAEP-derived state IQ also negative but not significant. Validity checks pointed to possible methodological problems with the state IQ estimates. Currently available estimates of state IQ, therefore, seem not appropriate to resolve the question of the direction of the ecological correlation of intelligence and suicide mortality across the USA.

Admission to University Engineering Programs in Sweden: A Multipurpose Approach

This brief article provides a description of some new ideas about admission of university engineering students in Sweden. The current system of admission is based on upper-secondary school grades and the Swedish Scholastic Assessment Test. These measures are used for admission to all higher education. For many reasons, ideas for a new admission model have been proposed. This model includes a sector-oriented admission test, which the universities are supposed to use for different purposes, such as selection, eligibility, diagnostics, and recruitment.