March 30, 2008

Action Research Project

Proposal
Outside Presentation
Overcoming Obstacles such as Idiomatic Barriers in
Respect to the GRE, a Standardized Test

C. Barnes Gallagher
 Introduction
• Overview of GRE Challenge
• Problem Description
• Problem Documentation
• Setting: Population/group
selected for the study
 Introduction (continued)

• Solution Strategy, Results

• Recommendations for change
• Recommendations for future
researchers
• Solicitation of audience feedback
 Overview of GRE Challenge
Prosperous Academic Goals, Achievements,
Economy

Responsive Non-Profit Educational

Testing Service (ETS)

Responding
Overcoming Focusing on Adapting, to
Socioeconomic Professional Advancing idiomatic,
dilemmas Workforces Technology rational
concerns

Viable, Communicative University System

 Overview
• 1. Problem Description
– Many graduating and Graduate
University students avoid standardized
tests such as the GRE because they
fear poor scores that they known may
reflect controversial diverse dialects
and biases which fluctuate according to
cultural and geographical areas.
• The problem is illustrated through verbal
skills that have decreased by at least 50 points
in 30 years, as well as a mere 2% of potential
examinees actually taking the exam.

• Value for the GRE is solely linked to

acquired scores rather than essential skills that
the exam progressively instills and promotes
(Bridgeman, Cline, & Hessinger, 2003, p. i).
Objective
• Students will learn to value the exam as
a learning tool, and to correspond with
ETS regarding their concerns.
Results
• The intervention strategy will increase
verbal scores to 500-550, at least 50
points greater than that which is the
median score, and an increased number
of examinees (500,000-1,000,000).
 2. Problem documentation
• By the year 2007, 15.34 million undergraduate University
seniors and 2.2 million graduate students had the
opportunity to contribute to educational standards and
strengthen their academic skills by taking the Graduate
Record Exam which is offered by the New Jersey-based
Educational Testing Services (ETS) (Bridgeman, Cline, &
Hessinger, 2003, p. i)

• According to the Ethics Resource Center, approximately

300,000 take the GRE each year (Pendell-Jones, 2003,
para. 1); this means that only ~ 2.31% of all undergraduate
and graduate students actually take the exam each year.
 Key Assumptions
• Students and teachers are aware of dialectic,
idiomatic, demographic variations, and biases inherent
in an evolving language and increasing dependency on
tools provided by a technological revolution.

• Most international students do not receive good

scores on the verbal section (Mupinga & Mupinga,
2005, p. 402).

• Assessors of the exam express awareness of the

exam’s performance biases.
 Key Assumptions (continued)
• Computerized testing has become the norm.
• Of the 300,000 students who take the GRE each year,
41,000 are from China (Pendell-Jones, 2003, para. 1),
and ~90% of Chinese test-takers did not feel that
purchasing the answer notes from other students could
constitute cheating (Pendell-Jones, 2003, para. 3).

• 75% of all students admit to cheating; 14% declare

that cheating is fair (Pendell-Jones, 2003, para. 11).
Setting: population/group selected for the study

• According to the The National Data Book of The

2008 Statistical Abstract, U.S. Census Bureau, the
projection for 2008 is 13,677,000 public University
school students and 4,587,000 private college school
students (about 18 million altogether):
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/tables/08s0207.pdf
.
• Our control group (3000 students) and action group
(3000 students) are composed of volunteer pupils who
are college students.
 Solution strategy or strategies
• Attention must be directed to cultural
pluralism and current dialectic, cultural
issues of White and Asian-American
families, and Black and Hispanic families
who, despite their very low incomes, have
addressed their concerns to agencies
provided by ETS. The solution strategy
includes attention that must also be
directed to developing students who
represent “40 % of the children from
Alaska, New Mexico, Louisiana, and
Mississippi” who live in impoverished
conditions (Barton, Coley, & Educational
Testing Service, 2007, p. 3).
Verbal Scores: Action and Control Groups, Pre- and Post-Tests

Pre-Tests (3000 Examinees) Post-Tests (3000 Examinees)

Control Group Action Group Control Group Action Group

Scores % # % # % # % #

800 0 0 1 30 1 30 3 90

700-799 1 30 1 30 1 30 3 90

600-699 18 540 19 570 19 570 40 1200

500-599 40 1200 33 990 41 1230 42 1260

400-499 20 600 22 660 19 570 10 300

300-399 16 480 18 540 15 450 1 30

200-299 5 150 6 180 4 120 1 30

Initial Problem Analysis
 Final Analysis
—Score Improvement
 Key Findings / Results 1
100
90
80
70
60
50 Action
40 Control
30
20
10
0
Pretest I Pretest II Posttest I Posttest II
Key Findings / Results 2

Control Control Action Action

 Key Findings / Results 3
Action Control
Condition Description Group Group
1 Corresponding with ETS True True

2 Daily Review of True False

Vocabulary, Etymology,
Quantitative Reasoning,
Analytical Writing
3 Expressed Value through True False
Survey Results for the
GRE, a standardized
exam, as a learning tool.
 Recommendations for change
• The change is compelled by ETS associates
who project understanding for cultural
pluralism and a universally comprehensible
idiom and jargon as per the exam’s goals that
must be extended to international students
who otherwise may need to take the TOEFL
first and be unable to achieve good scores on
the exam’s verbal section (Mupinga &
Mupinga, 2005, p. 402).
• The change includes the provision of study
guides that are offered free through the ETS
online site.
 Recommendations for future
researchers
• Recommendations include greater provision of the
new Internet-Based Testing (IBT) platform that is
also used for the Test of English as a Foreign
Language (TOEFL), as an improved learning
intervention.
• Recommendations include fair access by all potential
examinees to the effective intervention that includes
the beta test offered through the IBT platform which
enables examinees to foresee topics that the final
certified exam will cover.
• Recommendations must refer to the security problems
arising due to repeated use of the same examination
problems and that which constitutes “cheating”.
Questions
&
Discussion
 References
• Barton, P. E., Coley, R. J., & Educational Testing Service (2007,
September). The family: America's smallest school [Policy
information report]. Retrieved February 28, 2008, from
http://www.ets.org/research/pic
• Bridgeman, B., Cline, F., & Hessinger, J. (2003, May). GRE
research: Effect of extra time on GRE quantitative and verbal
scores. Retrieved February 29, 2008, from http://www.ets.org/gre
• Mupinga, E. E., & Mupinga, D. M. (2005, June). Perceptions of
international students toward Graduate Record Examination.
College Student Journal, 39, p. 402. Retrieved August 13, 2007,
from http://journals825.home.mindspring.com/csj/html
• Pendell-Jones, A. (2003). Retrieved August 14, 2007, from
http://www.ethics.org/erc-publications/staff-articles.asp?aid=765