Varieties of Accomplishment After College: Perspectives on the Meaning of Academic Talent

ACT RESEARCH REPORTrWÊÈÈNo. 6262March 1974VARIETIES OF ACCOMPLISHMENT AFTER COLLEGE: PERSPECTIVES ON THE MEANING OF ACADEMIC TALENTTHE AMERICAN COLLEGE TESTING PROGRAMP. 0 . BOX 168, IOWA CITY, IOWA 52243 VARIETIES OF ACCOMPLISHMENT AFTER COLLEGE:PERSPECTIVES ON THE MEANING OF ACADEMIC TALENTABSTRACTRecent studies show high school nonacademic accomplishments to be independent of academic talent, and to be related to similar kinds of college nonacademic accomplishments. College grades, however, have not been shown to be related to later-life accomplishments. The research reported here focuses on the accomplishments of young adults 2 years after college, and relates college admission data to these accomplishments. The adult accomplishments were found to be uncorrelated with academic talent, including test scores, high school grades, and college grades. However, adult accomplishments were related to comparable high school nonacademic accomplishments. This suggests that there are many kinds of talents related to later success which might be identified and nurtured by educational institutions. As we evaluate college outcomes in terms of postcollege student behaviors, we may have to reappraise the central role previously assigned academic talent. Prepared by the Research and Development Division The American College Testing Program©1974 by The American College Testing ProgramAll rights reserved. Printed in the United States of AmericaFor additional copies write:ACT PublicationsP.O. Box 168, Iowa City, Iowa 52240 (Check or money order must accompany request.) Price: $1.00 VARIETIES OF ACCOMPLISHMENT AFTER COLLEGE:PERSPECTIVES ON THE MEANING OF ACADEMIC TALENTLeo A. Munday and Jeanne C. DavisAfter many decades of educational measure­ment, the nature of human talent still eludes precise definition. Achievement tests may faithfully reflect the immediate results of academic instruction, but the later-life correlates of academic talent, and academic instruction for that matter, have not been adequately investigated. Researchers who have assumed academic talent was largely genetically determined on the one hand, or environmentally acquired on the other, have alike often assumed that academic talent had a substantial relationship with important adult accomplishments. In an example from the popular press, Herrnstein (Atlantic Monthly, 1971) puts forth the argument that academic ability is related to later-life success and this makes ability a foundation of, and rational­ization for, social stratification. Most people probably think academic ability is substantially related to later-life success, and this tends to exag­gerate for them the role of academic tests and grades as passports to adult success.Several previous ACT studies bear on the relation between academic and other kinds of talent, and it is the purpose of this report to summarize them, to extend them by exploring predictive relationships over a prolonged time period, andtotrace briefly the implications of this series of studies for our concept of talent.Our research experience may be summarized as follows:1. Nonacademic accomplishments, so-called because they are accomplishments outside the classroom, may be assessed by presenting check­lists of related activities and asking students to indicatethoseactivities in w hichthey have engaged.ACT included high school nonacademic accom­plishment scales as a part of the Student Profile Section (SPS) when the SPS was first introduced in the fall of 1964 to complement the ACT Tests in the ACT Assessment. Areas of nonacademic accom ­plishment for which scales were developed included Leadership, Music, Speech, Art, W riting, and Science, each scale containing eight related item s.1 Test-retest reliabilities for these scales ranged from .54 to .77, KR20 reliabilities from .63 to .88 (ACT Technical Report, 1965). Items illustrative of non- academic accomplishment are as follows: was elected to one or more student offices; played in a school musical organization; placed first, second, or third in a regional or state speech or debate contest; exhibited a work of artat my school (painting, sculp­ture, etc.); edited a school paper or yearbook; and did an independent scientific experiment (not a course assignment). The elements of these scales, reflecting as they dosignificant behaviors during the high school years, are socially valued in and of themselves.2. Academic talent as assessed by test scores, high school grades, and college grades, tends to be independent of nonacademic accomplishments (Holland & Richards, 1965; Richards, Holland, & Lutz, 1966). The matte