Predicting the Academic Achievement of African American Women at Two Predominantly White Women's Colleges

The purpose of this study was to determine if the Non-Cognitive Questionnaire (NCQ) could more accurately predict the academic achievement of first-year, African American women at two predominantly white women’s colleges than could the SAT. The participants’ first semester grade point averages were used as the dependent variable. The eight sub-scales of the NCQ, SAT-Verbal score and SAT-Math score were the independent variables. Study participants were 31 first-year, first-time students at two predominantly white women’s colleges located in the southeastern United States.

There were three findings of this study. First, “Demonstrated Community Service” was the only NCQ sub-scale to emerge as a predictor variable for fall grade point average. Second, neither the SAT-Verbal score nor SAT-Math score were significant predictors of fall grade point averages. Third, the NCQ had low prediction ability. In summary, the study found that the NCQ had low predictive ability for African American women in this study. The research does not recommend dismissing the entire body of academic literature on the NCQ. Instead, the study raises questions that compel further investigation with a larger number of African American women. Moreover, it underscores the need to identify additional factors that might account for the academic achievement of African American women, in general.