As part of Eastern New Mexico University's (ENMU) continuing efforts to maintain the quality of its academic programs and to determine student achievement in general education, the University administered the Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency (CAAP) to 668 students during the Fall, Spring, and Summer terms of Academic Year 1993-94. Five hundred and fifty-six students completed the CAAP during the Fall, ninety-five during the Spring, and seventeen during the Summer. The CAAP is designed to assess general education foundation skills typically attained by the end of the first two years of college. CAAP results are reported in five scale scores, three of which are composed, in part, of subscale scores. This edition of the DataWave reports, and offers some preliminary analysis of CAAP reports for ENMU, and sub-populations by gender, and transfers versus native students.
In comparison to national norms, ENMU students who completed the CAAP performed best in Reading and Critical Thinking. Results were poorest in Mathematics and Science Reasoning. The national percentiles that are reported constantly underreport the true ranking for ENMU students who completed the CAAP. This is due to the distribution of percentiles from standard score to standard score. Review of normative data revealed that the difference from one scale score to another (one point difference), may equate 4-6 percentage points. Attempts to calculate national percentiles from the national mean and standard deviations also do not result in true estimates of ENMU mean scores as the distribution of scores do not truly resemble a normal curve.
Women students consistently scored higher than men, and this may be due to women ascribing more meaning to participating in the CAAP (women self-reported higher motivation scores in completing the CAAP). It is also speculated that women try harder (i.e., are better students) as a compensation for cultural discrimination, are more likely to follow instructions, and tend to be older than their male counterparts (if age can be associated with maturity, and maturity with academic achievement). There is also the tradition of women, in the elementary and secondary education experiences, to be encouraged to achieve in language skills, where young men are encouraged to perform in quantitative endeavors.
Native students are defined as those who reported attending ENMU as first-time freshmen. Transfer students are all those students who indicated that they were not first-time freshmen at ENMU. ENMU native students consistently scored higher on the CAAP than did transfer students. Reasons for this difference may be somewhat accounted for in that the native sample has a larger proportion of women, and that the transfer sample is older (including more of the relatively less motivated mid-to-late 20's cohort). It is plausible that this difference in scores can be accounted for in lower division preparation in general education classes. Further investigation of general education coursework completed by students is necessary to test this hypothesis.
| Scale Score | National Mean | National Standard Deviation | ENMU Mean | ENMU Standard Deviation | National Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WRITING SKILLS | 63.7 | 4.7 | 63.1 | 4.8 | 46 |
| USAGE/ MECHANICS | 16.9 | 2.3 | 16.7 | 2.4 | 56 |
| RHETORIC SKILLS | 16.9 | 2.4 | 16.6 | 2.5 | 42 |
| MATHEMATICS | 58.2 | 3.8 | 56.2 | 3.5 | 34 |
| ALGEBRA | 15.0 | 1.9 | 14.1 | 1.8 | 37 |
| READING | 62.5 | 5.3 | 62.5 | 5.5 | 50 |
| ARTS/LITERATURE | 16.2 | 2.7 | 16.2 | 2.8 | 50 |
| SOCIAL STUDIES/ SCIENCE | 16.2 | 2.7 | 16.4 | 2.7 | 42 |
| CRITICAL THINKING | 62.7 | 5.2 | 62.6 | 5.3 | 43 |
| SCIENCE REASONING | 61.4 | 4.7 | 60.0 | 4.4 | 43 |
| Transfer Students Mean Scores | First Time Freshmen Mean Scores | |
|---|---|---|
| WRITING SKILLS | 62.5 | 63.6 |
| MATHEMATICS | 55.8 | 56.5 |
| READING | 62.0 | 62.8 |
| CRITICAL THINKING | 62.2 | 62.8 |
| SCIENCE REASONING | 59.7 | 60.1 |
| USAGE/ MECHANICS | 16.3 | 16.9 |
| RHETORIC | 16.4 | 16.9 |
| ALGEBRA | 13.9 | 14.2 |
| ARTS/ LITERATURE | 16.1 | 16.3 |
| SOCIAL STUDIES/SCIENCES | 16.2 | 16.5 |
| Women Mean Scores | Men Mean Scores | |
|---|---|---|
| WRITING SKILLS | 64.1 | 61.7 |
| MATHEMATICS | 55.9 | 56.5 |
| READING | 63.2 | 61.4 |
| CRITICAL THINKING | 62.9 | 62.0 |
| SCIENCE REASONING | 59.7 | 60.2 |
| USAGE/ MECHANICS | 17.1 | 16.0 |
| RHETORIC | 17.1 | 16.0 |
| ALGEBRA | 14.0 | 14.2 |
| ARTS/LITERATURE | 16.4 | 15.8 |
| SOCIAL STUDIES/SCIENCE | 16.6 | 16.0 |
