Knowledge building predictors inherent in the graduate admission process: Changing frameworks and reform opportunities for leaders in education

Abstract

The leadership challenge addressed in this study focused on the policies and practice currently used in making college admission selections for graduate students and the criterion used to make these decisions using narrative and standardized application data. The research question analyzed this occurrence by searching for the best predictors of academic success that emerged from a group of women applicants in a Master of Arts in Psychology program taken from a private, adult-oriented University in Southern California. The research study randomly selected 50 graduate applications and applied grounded theory methodology to identify standardized and narrative trends to predict academic success. Using a framework provided by a 1989 GRE Board Research Report published by the Educational Testing Service, exploratory characteristics were applied to the applications. A comparison of the resulting themes to the candidates' progression in the graduate program occurred at the point of the first significant benchmark in the program, which was the advancement to candidacy. Throughout the study, the evolving data was applied to current leadership theory and policy reform concepts in higher education. This study revealed that the standardized and narrative application information provided limited corroboration of the ETS characteristics. Themes emerged, but due to the narrative prompt, little specificity occurred. In looking at predictors of academic success in graduate study in psychology, the following general clusters of themes emerged from the study: knowledge building predictors, diversity and cross-cultural predictors, learning opportunities predictors, and career planning and development predictors. If admission reform becomes an institutional value, graduate colleges will be confronted with four significant tasks: first to identify institutional objectives and predictors to be reflected in the application; second, to analyze the predictors in terms of the knowledge building skills which prospective students should possess; third, to select or develop simulations appropriate for the study of each applicant; and fourth, to encourage women for whom there is institutional fit and a reasonable probability of academic success to pursue graduate work.