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
ENC0080
Direct Assessment
96%
60%
80 go to
ENC1101
83 Eligible to
take Exit Exam
40%
4%
62%
49 pass ENC1101
(“C” or higher)
38%
30 fail ENC1101
79 go to
ENC1101
83 Eligible to
take Exit Exam
5%
32 fail ENC1101
3 ineligible to
progress
ENC0080
Indirect Assessment
95%
48 pass ENC1101
(“C” or higher)
4 ineligible to
progress
ENC0080
Direct and Indirect
Assessments
96%
40%
32 fail ENC1101
80 go to
ENC1101
83 Eligible to
take Exit Exam
4%
60%
48 pass ENC1101
(“C” or higher)
3 ineligible to
progress
Combined Results
Pass with “C”
or better
Pass ENC1101 w/
“C” or better
Fail ENC1101
Direct
96%
60%
40%
Indirect
95%
62%
38%
Combined
96%
60%
40%
 Direct
Assessment
 Indirect Assessment
 Combined Assessments
r=.133433
r=.14496
r=.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.
 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

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

study over several years
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!