Executive Summary

Winthrop University’s 1999 General Education Assessment Initiative
College Basic Academic Subjects Examination (BASE): Institutional Matrix Form

(A national examination developed by the University of Missouri-Columbia’s Center for Educational Assessment) Prepared: Spring, 2000

            During the spring and fall of 1999, 455 Winthrop seniors took the Institutional Matrix form of the College BASE national examination as part of Winthrop’s General Education assessment initiative.  Winthrop faculty gave permission for Office of Assessment faculty and staff to administer the Institutional Matrix form of the College BASE during class time.  Winthrop seniors from all four colleges were represented.

            “The College BASE is a criterion-referenced achievement examination that assesses student proficiency in English, Mathematics, Science, and Social studies.  In addition to evaluating academic achievement in these subjects, College BASE gauges cognitive processing skills in three cross-disciplinary competencies: interpretive reasoning, strategic reasoning, and adaptive reasoning.” (College BASE Manual for Examiners and Test Coordinators Institutional Matrix Form. Riverside Publishing Company, @ 1989, p. 1).  Three forms of the College BASE are available: the Long Form, the Short Form, and the Institutional Matrix Form.  Winthrop uses the Institutional Matrix Form in which each student only completes a portion of the total examination.  Thus, students do not receive individual scores.  Rather, Winthrop receives the following aggregate scores: a composite score, subject scores for English, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies, and cluster scores in each subject area.  Clusters for English include Reading/Literature and Writing.  Cluster Scores for Mathematics include General Mathematics, Algebra and Geometry. Cluster scores for Science include Laboratory/Field Work and Fundamental Concepts.  Cluster scores for Social Studies include History and Social Sciences. 

            Winthrop’s composite mean (315) was higher than the national criterion-based mean of 300.  The possible range of composite scores is 40-560.  In order to determine Winthrop’s relative strengths and weaknesses, the College BASE subject scores were compared to the composite scores (Table 1).  Differences of fewer than 17 points were considered non-significant according to documentation from the Assessment Resource Center (ARC) at the University of Missouri-Columbia which scores the College BASE.  

            Winthrop senior examinees’ subject scores for English, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies did not differ significantly compared to the Winthrop composite score.   The standard deviation of 32 in Science suggests Winthrop examinees varied more in science scores compared to subject scores for English, Mathematics, and Social Studies. 

            Winthrop students scored at or above the national mean for all clusters within the four subject areas (Table 2). Winthrop senior examinees’ mean of 323 for reading/literature suggests that Winthrop seniors performed significantly higher than the national College BASE mean of 300 in this area. Winthrop senior examinees’ writing score of (297) suggests that Winthrop students demonstrated average performance in their writing skills compared to the national College BASE mean.

Subject Clusters                     Mean           SD        68% Scored between