1. Deborah Fontaine Dr. Susan Lang ENGL5365 August 2, 2010

2.  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)

3.  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.

4.  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.

5.  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?

6.  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

7. 83 Eligible to take Exit Exam 80 go to ENC1101 48 pass ENC1101 (“C” or higher) 32 fail ENC1101 3 ineligible to progress ENC0080 Direct Assessment 83 Eligible to take Exit Exam 79 go to ENC1101 49 pass ENC1101 (“C” or higher) 30 fail ENC1101 4 ineligible to progress ENC0080 Indirect Assessment 96% 60% 40% 4% 95% 5% 38% 62%

8. 83 Eligible to take Exit Exam 80 go to ENC1101 48 pass ENC1101 (“C” or higher) 32 fail ENC1101 3 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

9.  Direct Assessmentr=.133433  Indirect Assessmentr=.14496  Combined Assessmentsr=.169126 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.

10.  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.

11.  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

12. Questions? Thanks for your attention!