WICS: A Model for College and University Admissions

This article outlines shortcomings of currently used university admissions tests and discusses ways in which they could potentially be improved, summarizing two projects designed to enhance college and university admissions. The projects were inspired by the augmented theory of successful intelligence, according to which successful intelligence involves creative, analytical, practical, and wisdom-based skills. In the Rainbow Project, we found that, through our measures, prediction of 1st-year students’ university grade point average was substantially increased over that provided by SAT and high school grade point average; ethnic-group differences, relative to SAT, were simultaneously reduced. In the Kaleidoscope Project, we found that students admitted for the set of expanded skills performed as well as or better than did other students, without the ethnic-group differences typically obtained in such measures. Enhanced prediction of active-citizenship and leadership activities was also demonstrated through these measures.

[1]  Cyril Burt,et al.  The structure of human abilities , 1951 .

[2]  H. Gardner,et al.  Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences , 1983 .

[3]  E. A. Fleishman,et al.  Leadership skills for a changing world: Solving complex social problems. , 2000 .

[4]  Timothy J. Pleskac,et al.  Prediction of 4-year college student performance using cognitive and noncognitive predictors and the impact on demographic status of admitted students. , 2009, The Journal of applied psychology.

[5]  J. P. Rushton,et al.  THIRTY YEARS OF RESEARCH ON RACE DIFFERENCES IN COGNITIVE ABILITY , 2005 .

[6]  R. Sternberg.  Abilities Are Forms of Developing Expertise , 1998 .

[7]  R. Sternberg,et al.  Are SSATs and GPA Enough? A Theory-Based Approach to Predicting Academic Success in Secondary School , 2009 .

[8]  Donald E. Heller.  Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education , 2007 .

[9]  H. Gardner.  Multiple intelligences : new horizons , 2006 .

[10]  R. Sternberg.  The Rainbow Project: Enhancing the SAT through assessments of analytical, practical, and creative skills , 2006 .

[11]  S. Urbina.  The Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence: Tests of Intelligence , 2011 .

[12]  E. M. Tobin,et al.  Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education , 2005 .

[13]  William Kidder.  The Rise of the Testocracy: An Essay on the LSAT, Conventional Wisdom, and the Dismantling of Diversity , 2000 .

[14]  Robert J. Sternberg.  Accomplishing the Goals of Affirmative Action—with or without Affirmative Action , 2005 .

[15]  Liane Gabora,et al.  An Agent-based Simulation of the Effectiveness of Creative Leadership , 2010, ArXiv.

[16]  Rebecca Zwick,et al.  Fair Game?: The Use of Standardized Admissions Tests in Higher Education , 2002 .

[17]  Douglas K. Detterman,et al.  ACT and General Cognitive Ability. , 2008 .

[18]  Linda Jarvin,et al.  Using the theory of successful intelligence as a basis for augmenting AP exams in Psychology and Statistics , 2006 .

[19]  Richard Lynn,et al.  Race differences in intelligence: An evolutionary analysis. , 2006 .

[20]  Tzur M. Karelitz,et al.  Broadening the Spectrum of Undergraduate Admissions: The Kaleidoscope Project. , 2010 .

[21]  Neal Schmitt,et al.  Alternatives to GPA 1 Prediction of Four-Year College Student Performance using Cognitive and Noncognitive Predictors and the Impact on Demographic Status of Admitted Students , 2009 .

[22]  R. Zwick,et al.  New Perspectives on the Correlation of SAT Scores, High School Grades, and Socioeconomic Factors , 2007 .

[23]  David C. Berliner,et al.  Collateral Damage: How High-Stakes Testing Corrupts America's Schools , 2008 .

[24]  Steven E. Stemler,et al.  Using the theory of successful intelligence as a framework for developing assessments in AP physics , 2009 .

[25]  R. Sternberg,et al.  Intelligence as Developing Expertise. , 1999, Contemporary educational psychology.

[26]  R. Sternberg,et al.  Conceptions of Giftedness , 2005 .

[27]  Geoffrey Kabaservice.  The Guardians: Kingman Brewster, His Circle, and the Rise of the Liberal Establishment , 2004 .

[28]  R. Herrnstein,et al.  The Bell Curve , 1994 .

[29]  Robert J. Sternberg,et al.  College Admissions for the 21st Century , 2010 .

[30]  R. Sternberg,et al.  Teaching for Wisdom: What Matters Is Not Just What Students Know, but How They Use It. , 2007 .

[31]  W. Potts.  TESTS OF INTELLIGENCE * , 1912, British medical journal.

[32]  R. Sternberg.  WICS: A New Model for Cognitive Education , 2010, Journal of Cognitive Education and Psychology.

[33]  A. Gawande,et al.  The bell curve. , 2005, Minnesota medicine.

[34]  R. Sternberg.  Culture, instruction, and assessment , 2007 .

[35]  Linda Jarvin,et al.  Explorations in Giftedness , 2010 .

[36]  Jennifer Hedlund,et al.  Assessing Practical Intelligence in Business School Admissions: A Supplement to the Graduate Management Admissions Test. , 2006 .

[37]  R. Sternberg,et al.  Theory-Based University Admissions Testing for a New Millennium , 2004 .

[38]  Glenn B. Milewski,et al.  The Utility of the SAT ® I and SAT II for Admissions Decisions in California and the Nation , 2002 .

[39]  K. Robinson,et al.  The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything , 2008 .

[40]  Robert J. Sternberg,et al.  Finding Students Who Are Wise, Practical, and Creative. , 2007 .

[41]  R. Sternberg.  WICS: A Model of Leadership , 2005 .

[42]  Earl Hunt,et al.  Considerations Relating to the Study of Group Differences in Intelligence , 2007, Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

[43]  Robert J. Sternberg,et al.  Teaching for Ethical Reasoning in Liberal Education , 2010 .

[44]  Elena L. Grigorenko,et al.  Practical Intelligence in Everyday Life , 2000 .

[45]  Linda F. Wightman.  The Threat to Diversity in Legal Education: An Empirical Analysis of the Consequences of Abandoning , 1997 .

[46]  R. Cattell,et al.  Abilities : Their Structure , Growth , and Action , 2015 .

[47]  R. Sternberg.  A systems model of leadership: WICS. , 2007, The American psychologist.

[48]  I. Gottesman,et al.  PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Research Article SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS MODIFIES HERITABILITY OF IQ , 2022 .

[49]  F. Griffin.  The price of admission. , 2013, The Journal of the Arkansas Medical Society.

[50]  Michael C. Pyryt.  Human cognitive abilities: A survey of factor analytic studies , 1998 .

[51]  D. Woodruff,et al.  The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions , 1998 .

[52]  Patricia M. McDonough,et al.  Choosing Colleges: How Social Class and Schools Structure Opportunity , 1999 .

[53]  Liane Gabora,et al.  Broadening the Spectrum of Undergraduate Admissions , 2010 .

[54]  R. Sternberg.  The WICS approach to leadership: Stories of leadership and the structures and processes that support them , 2008 .

[55]  J. W. Getzels,et al.  Creativity and Intelligence: Explorations with Gifted Students. , 1962 .

[56]  M. Stevens.  Creating a Class: College Admissions and the Education of Elites , 2007 .

[57]  Dale Trusheim,et al.  The Case against the SAT , 1988 .

[58]  R. Sternberg,et al.  Kaleidoscope: Admitting and Developing "New Leaders for a Changing World". , 2010 .

[59]  I. Deary.  The general factor of intelligence: how general is it? , 2002 .

[60]  D. C. Rowe.  Under the skin: On the impartial treatment of genetic and environmental hypotheses of racial differences. , 2005, The American psychologist.

[61]  Elena L. Grigorenko,et al.  Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Sternberg Triarchic Abilities Test in Three International Samples , 2001 .

[62]  Gerard J. Puccio,et al.  Creative Leadership: Skills That Drive Change , 2006 .

[63]  D. Wood.  Self-theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality and Development. By Carol S. Dweck. Psychology Press, Hove, 1999. pp. 195. £29.95 (hb). , 2000 .

[64]  A. Kaufman.  Tests of intelligence , 2004 .

[65]  C. Spearman,et al.  "THE ABILITIES OF MAN". , 1928, Science.

[66]  Robert J. Sternberg,et al.  The Theory of Successful Intelligence , 2000 .

[67]  F. Schmidt,et al.  The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. , 1998 .

[68]  Jerome Karabel,et al.  The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton , 2005 .

[69]  Bill Boni.  E-Commerce: The Dark Side: The Price of Admission , 2001 .

[70]  R. Sternberg,et al.  Culture and intelligence. , 2004, The American psychologist.

[71]  David Lubinski,et al.  Tracking Exceptional Human Capital Over Two Decades , 2006, Psychological science.

[72]  Joseph S. Renzulli,et al.  Conceptions of Giftedness: The Three-Ring Conception of Giftedness: A Developmental Model for Promoting Creative Productivity , 2005 .

[73]  J. Guilford,et al.  The nature of human intelligence. , 1968 .

[74]  N. Kogan,et al.  Long-term predictive validity of divergent-thinking tests: some negative evidence. , 1973, Journal of educational psychology.

[75]  S. Daniels.  Wisdom, Intelligence, and Creativity Synthesized. , 2005 .

[76]  Robert J. Sternberg,et al.  A Balance Theory of Wisdom , 1998 .

[77]  Nicholas Lemann,et al.  The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy , 1999 .

[78]  Alfred Binet,et al.  The Development Of Intelligence In Children , 1916 .

[79]  Matthew C. Makel,et al.  Assessment of Creativity , 2010, Creativity.

[80]  R. Sternberg.  The Rainbow and Kaleidoscope Projects , 2009 .

[81]  Wayne J. Camara,et al.  Group Differences in Standardized Testing and Social Stratification. Report No. 99-5. , 1999 .

[82]  N. Schmitt,et al.  Developing a biodata measure and situational judgment inventory as predictors of college student performance. , 2004, The Journal of applied psychology.

[83]  C. Adcock,et al.  Primary Mental Abilities. , 1971, The Journal of general psychology.

[84]  Richard C. Atkinson,et al.  Reflections on a Century of College Admissions Tests , 2009 .

[85]  W. Sedlacek,et al.  Beyond the Big Test: Noncognitive Assessment in Higher Education , 2004 .

[86]  L. Iacocca,et al.  Where Have All the Leaders Gone , 2007 .

[87]  L. Shulman,et al.  Modes of thinking in young children , 1965 .

[88]  R. Sternberg,et al.  Intelligence, race, and genetics. , 2005, The American psychologist.

[89]  Elena L. Grigorenko,et al.  Identification, Instruction, and Assessment of Gifted Children: A Construct Validation of a Triarchic Model , 1996 .

[90]  Robert J. Sternberg,et al.  CULTURAL INFLUENCES ON ARTISTIC CREATIVITY AND ITS EVALUATION , 2001 .

[91]  A. Jensen,et al.  The g factor , 1996, Nature.

[92]  D. Detterman,et al.  Scholastic Assessment or g? , 2004, Psychological science.

[93]  R. Sternberg,et al.  The Cambridge handbook of intelligence , 2011 .

[94]  Stephen J. Ceci,et al.  On intelligence : a bioecological treatise on intellectual development , 1996 .

[95]  R. Jackson,et al.  The Matthew Effect in Science , 1988, International journal of dermatology.