A study on the correlation of course grades in English with scores on standardized reading tests

It was the purpose of this study to determine the degree of correlation between the academic achievement 4in English and the reading ability of a number of students of the freshman Class at the University of Houston 1951. The course grades in Inglieh 121 were correlated with the scaled scores made on The Cooperative English Test, Test C2: Reading Comprehension, Form S and also with the raw scores made on The Psychological Examination for College Freshman. The Pearson product-moment method of correlation was used. All scores were tabulated, and a histogram was made for each set of scores and grades to give a pictorial representation of the distributions. Literature was reviewed to find the viewpoint of authorities concerning the relationship between scholastic achievement in English and reading ability. The histograms of the scores on the standardised reading test and on the "linguistic" test pictured normal distributions with the scores following the course of a normal curve. The histograms of the course grades showed a tendency of the grade scores to cluster around the arithmetic mean. [...]