INSTRUMENTATION TO MEASURE STUDENT GROWTH TOWARD THE "PROFILE" OF THE GRADUATE OF A JESUIT OR CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL (EFFECTS, PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAITS, RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OUTCOMES)
Abstract
The Profile of the Graduate of a Jesuit or Catholic high school was developed by the Commission on Research and Development of the Jesuit Secondary Education Association. Projecting what these schools, in pursuing their distinct educational goals, could accomplish with their graduates, the Profile was intended to be a help for each of the schools in assessing the impact of its overall curriculum and an important means for curricular improvement. In the Profile, the graduate was conceptually described by school practitioners under five separate yet complementary areas: Open To Growth, Intellectually Competent, Religious, Loving, and Committed To Doing Justice. Each area included a number of "descriptors" which further specified student outcomes. The theoretical rationale behind the Profile was both developmental theory and an incarnational theology which avoided any division between spiritual, religious realities and academic concerns. This study, under the auspices of the Center for the Study of Testing, Evaluation, and Educational Policy at Boston College, proposed to construct a content-valid and reliable survey instrument as an independent means for the schools of assessing student growth from freshman to senior year. The theoretical rationale behind the instrument was trait theory--that appropriate measurement techniques could tap both observed and latent personal traits which pinpointed specific predispositions for student growth. Since this survey charted new ground and advanced the state of the art by including the measurement of a broad range of student outcomes and by focusing on student attitudes, all of the proper steps and procedures in the instrument's construction have been delineated. Also, how the many Profile categories were reduced by factor analysis to a smaller number of salient factor traits has been reported. It was found that the instrument was unique in tapping strong student feelings. The factor analyses confirmed the construct validity of the Profile areas and identified twenty-nine discrete factor scales for the Profile areas (Intellectually Competent becoming Civic Competence), six for student practice, and eighteen under students' perceptions of school goals. Although there was not a one-to-one correspondence between the area factors and the Profile descriptors, the substantive elements of the Profile were supported by the factor analyses and were represented in the instrument.
Subject Area
School administration
Recommended Citation
MARTIN, LEONARD ANTHONY, "INSTRUMENTATION TO MEASURE STUDENT GROWTH TOWARD THE "PROFILE" OF THE GRADUATE OF A JESUIT OR CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL (EFFECTS, PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAITS, RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OUTCOMES)" (1985). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI8600074.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI8600074
