The validity of the SAT as an admissions criterion for Latinos and Asian Americans who are not native English speakers was examined. The analyses, based on 1997 and 1998 UCSB freshmen, focused on the effectiveness of SAT scores and high school grade‐point average (HSGPA) in predicting college freshman grade‐point average (FGPA). When regression equations were estimated based on all students combined, some systematic prediction errors occurred. For language minorities, using only high school grades as a predictor led to predicted FGPAs that tended to exceed actual FGPAs, particularly for Latinos. Including SAT scores in the equation notably reduced prediction bias. Further analyses showed that, while HSGPA had the highest correlation with FGPA for most groups, SAT verbal score was the strongest predictor of FGPA for language minorities in 1998. An overriding conclusion is that combining data across language groups can obscure important test validity information.

How can academicians who desire a sustainable future successfully participate in transdisciplinary projects? Transcending our hidden thought patterns is required. Paradoxically, the disciplinary specialization that enabled the industrial era and its metaphors now function to undermine our ability to recognize and participate in the transformational learning that is needed. In this paper, we offer a post-industrial era metaphor for transdisciplinarity-that of complex dynamic system-that has helped us to work through the unexpected experiences encountered in the process of transformative learning. These insights are based on an ongoing transdisciplinary research collaboration (2008-present) using action research methods; we focus on the faculty experience. Accepting the metaphors of complex systems, we describe the systemic conditions that OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2014, 6 2894 seem to repeatedly reproduce the emergence of transformative learning for participants, as well as what one might expect to experience in the process. These experiences include: conflict, existential crisis, transformation and renewed vitality within the necessary context of a safe and caring community. Without the adoption of complexity metaphors, these elements would have been overlooked or interpreted as a hindrance to the work. These insights are intended to serve as socially robust knowledge to support the effective participation of faculty members in sustainability projects of a transdisciplinary nature.

Lizabeth is a professor at Cal Poly, SLO in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. She has been teaching for 23 years and has continued to develop innovative pedagogy such as project based, flipped classroom and competency grading. Her current research examines grading and the assumptions faculty hold about students. Through the SUSTAIN SLO learning initiative she and her colleagues have been active researching transformation in higher education.c American Society for Engineering Education, 2016 Transcending industrial era paradigms: Learning together for diversity Abstract This poster describes findings from a transdisciplinary freshman learning initiative involving four cohorts from 2012 to 2015 with over 200 freshmen students from 59 different majors in partnership with over 30 community agencies and 20 faculty members from 5 colleges at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Although the outcomes of the initiative indicated success, the activities proved difficult for our university to support. The stated reasons included assertions of lack of efficiency and suspicion of the pedagogical methods. We have come to believe that this systemic intolerance for differences is the same dynamic that produces the persistent lack of diversity in STEM (traditionally defined as the physical sciences, technology, engineering, and math). We know other STEM change agents are struggling with these same forces that preserve past methods, approaches, and values. The common view in STEM education is that the systemic lack of diversity is a problem that needs to be fixed, rather than a predictable, normal outcome of the current system's functioning. But from the point of view of systems thinking, the symptoms and patterns of exclusion in STEM education are rooted in the assumed and unexamined values and paradigms of the system's architects. We, the administrators, faculty, staff and participants, create and uphold the structures, policies, and practices that produce inequity. Instead of leading for diversity, we lead by the exertion of force and control in order to achieve "efficiency" and maintain a specifically non-diverse institutional identity in service to preserving "market advantage." We value and develop "economies of scale", which require homogeneous thinking, action, and results-none of which support diversity of structure, thinking, action, and outcomes. To realize diversity, our paradigm must shift from an imbalanced prioritization of traditional capitalist values, such as economy of scale (one-dimensional thinking and efficiency) to economies of scope, inherently diverse in structure, thought, and action. Diversity almost certainly means a great deal of tolerance and cooperative capacity. This includes embracing conflict, ambiguity, uncertainty, and paradox, all of which are more or less antithetical to economies of scale, the academic currency of expertise, legacy definitions of efficiency, and the objectivism foundational to STEM epistemologies. Transcending these industrial era paradigms a...

Lizabeth is a professor at Cal Poly, SLO in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. She has been teaching for 23 years and has continued to develop innovative pedagogy such as project based, flipped classroom and competency grading. Her current research examines grading and the assumptions faculty hold about students. Through the SUSTAIN SLO learning initiative she and her colleagues have been active researching transformation in higher education. Dr. Linda Vanasupa, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis ObispoLinda Vanasupa has been a professor of materials engineering at the California Polytechnic State University since 1991. She also serves as co-director of the Center for Sustainability in Engineering at Cal Poly. Her life's work is focused on creating ways of learning, living and being that are alternatives to the industrial era solutions-alternatives that nourish ourselves, one another and the places in which we live. Her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees are in materials science and engineering from Stanford University and her B.S. degree in metallurgical engineering from the Michigan Technological University.c American Society for Engineering Education, 2016 Grading for enhanced motivation and learningOne student commented, "[The grading method] makes sure the student has full mastery of the course material before they are awarded the units," another said, "Somehow I actually learned something but wasn't super stressed all quarter", and finally, "Having our grade in our own hands, for once, is refreshing." The students are referring to a grading method known as "mastery" grading. Mastery grading is a combination of defining and assessing the competencies needed and creating an opportunity for learning beyond the competencies. Instead of having students do all the work and receiving a portion of the points on each assignment with the grade being a weighted average of all the assignments, the paradigm is shifted. In this mastery grading method, students are asked to demonstrate a high level of mastery on the most important concepts in the course, a subset of the learning objectives. This demonstrated mastery usually occurs through the traditional midterm and final. The difference is that students must score at a 90% level on these tests to pass the class. This can be achieved through multiple test retake attempts. This level of mastery earns the students a "C". In order to earn a higher grade, a student must demonstrate learning beyond the mastery level. This might include a research report or project, or it might be an additional test of more advanced topics. Mastery grading draws from concepts in "Self-Determination Theory" of motivation. Students have autonomy in their own level of learning and feel much more in control of their grade. In addition, students are motivated to prove mastery of the topics. The grading method also seems to relieve some of the stress that the typical engineering student feels.This work-in-progress paper begins with a discussion of the theoretical foundation of the method. ...

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