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Predicting the success of freshmen students according to the admissions criteria of a vocational technical high school system

Nicholas J Spera, Johnson & Wales University

Abstract

The acceptance of a grade eight student into a vocational technical high school is thought to strongly influence a student’s full-time occupation after high school graduation (Betz & Wolfe, 2005). Recruiters for New England Vocational Technical High Schools often hear that grade eight students wish they knew about the NEVTHSS admissions requirements as seventh graders. Eighth grade students are sometimes unaware that the academic scores, attendance, and the State standardized test during the seventh grade year are weighed heavily as criteria for the NEVTHSS. The admissions process for the New England Vocational Technical High School System is determined by a student’s academic performance in the seventh and beginning of eighth grade. This study investigated the 2007 admissions criteria being used by a vocational technical high school system in Southern New England. Specifically, it determined whether the admissions criteria for eighth grade applicants are predictors of success for freshman students in a vocational technical high school. The study’s sample was drawn from a vocational technical high school that best represents the demographics, race, and gender of the entire vocational technical high school system. Data including the composite admission score that is comprised of seventh and eighth grade academic scores, seventh and eighth grade attendance, seventh grade standardized test results in the areas of mathematics and language arts were compared with freshmen students’ final academic and trade grades, attendance, and gender were examined amongst the sample of 123 freshmen students from this specific vocational technical high school. A stepwise multiple regression analysis was used to determine whether the admissions criteria are a predictor of success during the first year at a vocational technical high school. The results of the study revealed a strong correlation between a freshman student’s final grade point average (GPA) and the admission criteria variables of the composite admissions score and the student’s seventh and eighth grade academic scores(r2 = .451, p = .000). Furthermore, the study revealed that there was no predictability between the admissions criteria variables and the freshmen trade grades.

Subject Area

Educational tests & measurements|Secondary education|Vocational education

Recommended Citation

Spera, Nicholas J, "Predicting the success of freshmen students according to the admissions criteria of a vocational technical high school system" (2009). Dissertation & Theses Collection. AAI3378871.
https://scholarsarchive.jwu.edu/dissertations/AAI3378871

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