Grantee: Opportunity Insights
Study Type: Descriptive
Principal Investigator: Michele Tine – Dartmouth College
Project Description: The researchers combined student-level data from the admissions process and the Office of Institutional Research for first-year first-time students from multiple Ivy-Plus colleges, including all students in first-year classes who started in fall of 2017-23 (excluding fall of 2020, due to the disruption from COVID-19) who reported high school GPA and completed the required minimum number of courses during their first full year. Using administrative records at each partner college, the researchers defined their three outcome variables as first-year cumulative GPA, percent of grades that are A or A-, and an indicator for academic struggle defined as having any grade of C+ or lower in the first year. They regressed these three outcome measures on SAT/ACT scores, high school GPA, and various student demographic characteristics.
Key Findings: The researchers found that SAT and ACT scores were predictive of students’ academic performance, with a .47 difference in GPA (1 SD) between students with perfect scores on the SAT/ACT and those with a 1200 or 25 on the SAT/ACT, respectively. Lower-scoring students were also more likely to struggle academically during their first year. In contrast, high school GPA had a relatively weak relationship with academic performance in college; comparing students with a perfect 4.0 high school GPA to those with a 3.2 GPA predicted a less than 0.1 difference in first-year college GPA. The researchers also found that SAT and ACT scores exhibited no calibration bias, in that students from different backgrounds but sharing the same test scores achieved similar average levels of academic success in college.
Study Citation: Friedman, J. N., Sacerdote, B., Staiger, D. O., & Tine, M. (2025). Standardized test scores and academic performance at ivy plus colleges. NBER Working Paper Series. http://www.nber.org/papers/w33570
Full report here.
The Key Findings above were reproduced from the published report and do not necessarily reflect interpretation of Overdeck Family Foundation staff.
Social-Emotional Learning
PowerMyLearning - Impact of PowerMyLearning's Social Emotional Learning Program: 2021-2022 Mid-Year and School Year Analysis
This is a pre-post study of PowerMyLearning’s Social Emotional Learning (SEL) program—Nurture Student Growth Through Social Emotional Learning—which serves teachers, students, and families with children in first through sixth grade with the goals of addressing challenging behaviors and supporting family wellbeing.
Read more