Student Number: 9109265Y A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Psychology) / The Academic Proficiency Assessment battery evaluates language and study skills. This study focused on the internal consistency reliability and predictive validity of this battery for Information Technology students. In terms of reliability, the Time management, Note-taking skills, and Debilitating stress scale on the achievement anxiety questionnaire were found to be internally consistent. However, the items in the English proficiency, Reading comprehension, Memorisation skills, concentration skills and motivating stress scale on the achievement anxiety questionnaire require modification or replacement. Intercorrelations across questionnaires necessitate further streamlining. In terms of predictive validity, a significant negative relationship was found between Note-taking Skills and academic performance (R2 adj = 8,3%). Matric results remain the best predictor accounting for 11% of the variance in CGPA. Cumulatively, Matric results and Note-taking skills accounted for 13,34% of the variance. None of the biographical variables significantly predicted CGPA. Despite the apparent lack of relationship between individual predictors and the criterion, a discriminant function analysis indicated that all the academic proficiencies, with the exception of English proficiency, correctly predicted pass or failure in 72% of the cases. The lack of relationship between English proficiency and pass/failure can be accounted for in terms of the type of courses studied as part of an Information Technology programme.Overall, the results would suggest that Matric results remain the best predictor of academic performance in Information Technology courses, but at a very low level. Given the lack of reliability in the majority of the subtests of the Academic Proficiency Battery, the use of the APA battery for selection for remedial intervention for Information Technology students is not yet justified.

In 2007, the Student Equity and Talent Management Unit (SETMU) at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) initiated a programme called the Targeting Talent Programme (TTP). One of the objectives of the TTP is to equip students to be successful at university. The first cohort of students consisted of 270 talented Grade 9 students from disadvantaged rural and urban schools. They were identified at the end of 2006, and they attended enrichment sessions at the University during 2007, 2008 and 2009. Thirty seven of the students enrolled for Engineering at Wits in 2010. They were given no further assistance by the TTP. The TTP based the planning of its curriculum on the Competencies identified by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The primary aim of the PISA assessment is to determine the extent to which young people have acquired the wider knowledge and skills in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy that they will need in adult life, hence the TTP attempted to incorporate the PISA Competencies in their curriculum in order to equip students for tertiary education. Habits of Mind identified by Cuoco and others were also used in planning the TTP curriculum in order to equip students with thinking skills. The TTP was successful in helping students to achieve university entrance, but there is a need to investigate to what extent the three year intervention program enables the students to succeed at university. This report focuses on the 37 students who enrolled for Engineering at Wits in 2010. They are compared to a sample of 37 students from the 2010 cohort who did not attend the TTP. The sample of non-TTP students was chosen by matching the National Senior Certificate Mathematics and Science marks obtained by the ex-TTP students as closely as possible. Thus two samples with an almost identical initial academic profile were created. One of the differences between the samples is that the ex-TTP students had had input which was aimed at equipping them to attain university entrance and to succeed there, whereas the other students had had no such formal assistance. The ex-TTP students were also compared with the cohort as a whole. This report shows that 16 of the 37 students (43%) passed the Mathematics, Mechanics and Physics courses that they were enrolled for. It also shows that the ex-TTP students scored lower on average than the non-TTP students and the cohort, for the Mathematics, Physics and Mechanics courses that they were enrolled for. Interviews with 9 of the ex-TTP students show that they did not consciously transfer study techniques from the TTP to university. The TTP was thus only partially successful in its objective of enabling students to be successful at university.

As the concern for standardized testing continues to rise, so to does the concern for providing students with an appropriate and equal educational opportunity. The goal of this research was to investigate relevant data to determine if there is a relationship between the wealth behind each student and the academic proficiency amongst 5th grade white, black, and Hispanic students within the 67 counties of Florida. The desired outcome of this study was to produce information relevant to political leaders, educational leaders, and teachers in Florida public school districts with influential strategies necessary to increase the proportion of 5th grade students achieving academic proficiency. The review of literature and analysis of the data gathered from the Florida Department of Education for the school year 2006-2007 and the Florida Department of Revenue, 2007 revealed the following findings: (1) there is a statistically significant correlation between reading scores among white and black students in grade 5 as measured by the FCAT and the wealth behind each student within the state of Florida; (2) there is no statistically significant correlation between reading scores among Hispanic students in grade 5 as measured by the FCAT and the wealth behind each student within the state of Florida. In other words, as school districts are deemed more wealthy, white and black students in grade 5 tend to do better in reading than their white and black counterparts in poorer districts. In contrast, Hispanic students in wealthy school districts do not do better in reading than their Hispanic counterparts in poor districts.