Browsing by Author "Santelices, Maria Veronica"

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    Information sources and transition to higher education: Students, teachers and school counselors' perspectives
    (ELSEVIER SCI LTD, 2020) Santelices, Maria Veronica; Zarhi, Magdalena; Horn, Catherine; Catalan, Ximena; Ibanez, Alicia
    Despite the increase in higher education enrollment observed in Chile in past decades, there are significant differences among the quality of institutions in which students from different socioeconomic level enroll, and a system-level dropout issue. Initial results from the literature suggest a relationship between high-school advising and enrollment. This research explores students' knowledge about higher education and the role that different actors play in the college-decision making process in Chile using mixed methods approach. Most respondents felt informed about higher education programs but felt only partially informed about financial aid, tuition costs, and labor outcomes. Results should inform policies aiming to increase access and persistence in higher education. Implications for literature on human capital and college-choice are discussed.
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    On the Relationship Between Differential Item Functioning and Item Difficulty: An Issue of Methods? Item Response Theory Approach to Differential Item Functioning
    (SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC, 2012) Santelices, Maria Veronica; Wilson, Mark
    The relationship between differential item functioning (DIF) and item difficulty on the SAT is such that more difficult items tended to exhibit DIF in favor of the focal group (usually minority groups). These results were reported by Kulick and Hu, and Freedle and have been enthusiastically discussed by more recent literature. Examining the validity of the original reports of this systematic relationship is important so that we can move on to investigating more effectively its causes and the consequences associated to test score use. This article explores the hypothesis that the observed relationship between DIF and item difficulty observed in the SAT could be because of one of the following explanations: (a) the confounding of DIF and impact by the shortcomings of the standardization approach and/or (b) by random guessing. The relationship between DIF and item difficulty is examined using item response theory, which better controls for differences between impact and DIF than the standardization approach and also allows us to test the importance of guessing. The results obtained generally find evidence in support of the relationship between item difficulty and DIF suggesting that the phenomenon reported by earlier research is not a mere artifact of the statistical methodologies used to study DIF.
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    Secondary students' expectations on transition to higher education
    (2021) Guzman, Pamela; Cifuentes Gomez, Gonzalo; Santelices, Maria Veronica
    Background: The transition of high school students to higher education can be an overwhelming experience which may impact on academic outcomes. Despite increases in access, course completion rates remain problematic in Chile. Students' expectations of higher education can play an important role in their decision-making, especially in terms of choices made about programme and institution.
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    Unfair Treatment? The Case of Freedle, the SAT, and the Standardization Approach to Differential Item Functioning
    (HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL EDUCATION, 2010) Santelices, Maria Veronica; Wilson, Mark
    In 2003, the Harvard Educational Review published a controversial article by Roy Freedle that claimed bias against African American students in the SAT college admissions test. Freedle's work stimulated national media attention and faced an onslaught of criticism from experts at the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the agency responsible for the development of the SAT In this article, Maria Veronica Santelices and Mark Wilson take the debate one step further with new research exploring differential item functioning in the SAT By replicating Freedle's methodology with a more recent SAT dataset and by addressing some of the technical criticisms from ETS, Santelices and Wilson confirm that SAT items do junction differently for the African American and Mite subgroups in the verbal test and argue that the testing industry has an obligation to study this phenomenon.