Improving the Validity and Diversity of a College Admissions Selection System:
The Utility of Social and Emotional Learning Measures
September 28, 2020 (Monday)
Abstract
Admission officers are often confronted with competing goals: admitting the most qualified students while maximizing the diversity of an admitted class. Unfortunately, the top factors considered in the admissions process–grades and test scores–exhibit large subgroup differences. In response, many colleges and universities have expressed a desire to consider other factors, which capture students’ persistence and accomplishments in the context of their environment and past experiences.
This session will focus on the utility of social and emotional learning measures, which add to the prediction of college success while exhibiting small-to-no subgroup differences, as a solution to this problem.
Bio
Krista Mattern is a Senior Director in Research at ACT. Her research focuses on predicting education and workplace success through evaluating the validity and fairness of cognitive and non-cognitive measures. Also known for work in evaluating the efficacy of learning products to help improve intended learner outcomes. She has over 100 publications including journal articles, technical reports, and books chapters and has served as the editor of two books. Her work has been published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Educational Measurement, Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, Educational and Psychological Measurement, and the Journal of College Student Development. Mattern received her Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology with a minor in Quantitative Psychology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.