Validity of college admission indices for Jews and Arabs in Israel

This study examines Israeli cultural group differences in scholastic aptitude and achievement indices as well as the differential construct and predictive validity of precollege admission indices for Jewish and Arab students in Israel. The sample was composed of 1778 Jewish and 1017 Arab student candidates applying for admission to a major university. The admission indices include five scholastic aptitude subtests appearing on both the Hebrew and Arabic versions of the college entrance test battery and matriculation certificate grades in three required subjects. The predictor battery shows comparable factor structure across cultural groups. The correlations between aptitude and achievement predictors and first-year college G.P.A. were homogeneous across the groups. A slight degree of intercept bias was evidenced with the predictive indices tending to over predict the scholastic achievement of Arab students and under predict that of their Jewish counterparts. The results are consistent with previous research in America showing negligible differences in the construct and predictive validity of college admission tests for different cultural and racial groups.