EXAMINING EVIDENCE OF RELIABILITY, VALIDITY, AND FAIRNESS FOR THE SUCCESSNAVIGATOR™ ASSESSMENT

Abstract

The SuccessNavigator™ assessment is an online, 30 minute self‐assessment of psychosocial and study skills designed for students entering postsecondary education. In addition to providing feedback in areas such as classroom and study behaviors, commitment to educational goals, management of academic stress, and connection to social resources, it is also designed to predict a range of early academic outcomes. By indicating students' likely success, advisors, faculty, and staff can target their interactions with students to increase their likelihood of success. This report outlines evidence of reliability, validity, and fairness to demonstrate the appropriateness of SuccessNavigator for these purposes.

Research on Validity Theory and Practice at ETS

“…A noncognitive assessment, the SuccessNavigator ® assessment, which was designed to assist colleges in making course placement decisions, was in use at more than 150 colleges and universities in 2015. An ongoing research program provided evidence related to placement validity claims, reliability, and fairness of the measure's scores and placement recommendations (e.g., Markle et al 2013;Rikoon et al 2014).…”

Using the SuccessNavigator® Assessment to Assess Change Over Time: A Longitudinal Measurement Invariance Study

“…This assessment aids their advisors and other related staff along two primary lines. The first is initial academic course placement, where SN scale scores and predictive indices provide advisors with a more holistic picture of a student's likelihood of success than would be garnered from looking only at prior academic achievement or standardized placement tests (for detail, see Markle et al, ; Rikoon, Liebtag, Olivera‐Aguilar, Robbins, & Jackson, ). The second primary student‐level use of SN is to aid in determining students' self‐perceived psychosocial strengths as well as areas in which they may benefit from further development.…”

“…The SuccessNavigator ® assessment (SN) is an assessment used by institutions of higher education to measure student psychosocial characteristics across four broad domains: academic skills, commitment, self-management, and social support (Markle, Olivera-Aguilar, Jackson, Noeth, & Robbins, 2013). These domains each contain two or three specific subskills.…”

Anticipating College Enrollment: Adapting SuccessNavigator® for High School Students

“…Prior research has demonstrated positive relationships between the expression of noncognitive or psychosocial skills and both academic success and persistence in higher education (e.g., Porchea, Allen, Robbins, & Phelps, ; Poropat, ; Robbins, Allen, Casillas, Peterson, & Le, ; Robbins et al, ; Trapmann, Hell, Hirn, & Schuler, ). Specifically, the SuccessNavigator ® assessment, created by Educational Testing Service (ETS), has also been shown to predict collegiate academic success (Markle, Olivera‐Aguilar, Jackson, Noeth, & Robbins, ; Rikoon, Liebtag, Olivera‐Aguilar, Robbins, & Jackson, ). While this body of research focuses on postsecondary outcomes, it does not diminish the importance of developing strong behavioral skills earlier in one's academic career.…”

“…academic success (Markle, Olivera-Aguilar, Jackson, Noeth, & Robbins, 2013;Rikoon, Liebtag, Olivera-Aguilar, Robbins, & Jackson, 2014). While this body of research focuses on postsecondary outcomes, it does not diminish the importance of developing strong behavioral skills earlier in one's academic career.…”