标题：Discrimination of performance tiers and prediction of success in introductory physics courses using a statistical method for establishing cutoff scores
期刊名称：Learning & Teaching in Higher Education: Gulf Perspectives
电子版ISSN：2077-5504
出版年度：2017
卷号：14
期号：1
页码：1-13
DOI：10.18538lthe.v14.n1.277
语种：English
出版社：Zayed University Press
摘要：This study sheds light on the prediction of success using cutoff scores for student grades adopted for a required Physics pathway course for study in a health professions program at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia. Data on course grade and GPA for approximately 10,000 students enrolled in this course between 2008–2014, were analyzed. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to determine cutoffs for course grades using ranges of GPA. This procedure has promise as a new method for quantitatively arriving at cutoff scores using an external criterion requiring less human judgment than most existing standard setting methods. The cutoff scores produced show that GPAs of students who complete the Physics course yield successive performance tiers that are lower than expected. In addition, the correlation between GPA and course grade for Physics is only 0.63 and therefore only 39% of the variation in GPA explains course grade. As a result of the findings of the study, the decision was made to maintain the existing standards thereby requiring higher grades in the Physics course for students seeking to enter a health professions course of study.
关键词：cut off score; logistic regression; ROC analysis; statistical analysis
