The Relationship between SAT® Scores and Retention to the Fourth Year: 2006 SAT Validity Sample. Statistical Report 2011-6

The College Board formed a research consortium with four-year colleges and universities to build a national higher education database with the primary goal of validating the SAT® for use in college admission. The first sample included first-time, first-year students entering college in fall 2006, with 110 institutions providing students' first-year course work, grades, and retention to the second year. In addition to examining the predictive validity of the SAT in terms of college grades (Kobrin, Patterson, Shaw, Mattern, & Barbuti, 2008; Mattern, Patterson, Shaw, Kobrin, & Barbuti, 2008), the relationship between SAT performance and retention to the second year was examined (Mattern & Patterson, 2009). The results found that higher SAT scores were associated with higher retention rates In the following years, participating colleges and universities were invited to provide subsequent performance data for these students in order to track them longitudinally throughout their college career. For the second year, 66 of the original 110 institutions provided data. Mattern and Patterson (2011) examined the relationship between SAT performance and retention to the third year of college. Similar to the results for second-year retention rates, higher SAT scores were associated with higher third-year retention rates. This study builds on this body of research by examining the relationship between SAT performance and retention to the fourth year of college. The sample consisted of 59 of the original 110 institutions. Complete data (i.e., SAT scores, self-reported high school grade point average (HSGPA), retention to second-, third-, and fourth-year data) were available for 78,640 students. Results show that SAT performance was positively related to fourth-year retention rates. Detailed results are provided in this report. A list of institutions providing retention to the fourth year data for the 2006 SAT validity sample is appended.