COMPARISON of SQ to RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Both provide information on an individual's talent that is not apparent from other sources. Both offer insights into likely future success that are largely independent of intelligence measures.
2. As an SAT score helps put a school transcript in perspective, an SQ score brings perspective to a recommendation letter, extra-curricular accomplishments, or impressions from an interview:
- SQ scores are normed, avoiding the favorable bias in letters.
- SQ scores from different schools can be readily compared.
- A high SQ score can explain some reasons for leadership.
- SQ scores enable quite different accomplishments to be compared. For example: Was the tennis team captain chosen because he was the best player, while the drama club head was a true leader?
3. Each SQ number is the result of the input of many other students. "To some extent, any evaluation reflects the evaluator. For that reason, getting evaluations from many sources is a way to correct any distortions." (Daniel Goleman in Working With Emotional Intelligence)
4. While teacher assessment of individual student SQ's vary, their overall ability to predict SQ is quite good. Teacher ratings (done in twelve classes) showed a very high 0.47 correlation with student SQ ratings, similar to the 0.48 correlation between high school grade point averages and college freshman grades. Nevertheless, teachers recommend using class SQ data over their own impressions in trying to predict future success for a student: "Too much to put on one person's judgement."
5. The type of high SQ student most frequently misjudged by teachers "were medium ability academically and somewhat quiet." They tended not to be in official leadership positions, but were often behind the scenes organizers and opinion leaders. Many were non-flashy girls.
6. In general, girls score significantly higher in SQ than boys (104 vs 95). This finding is in line with other research that females show more empathy than males and are better at reading body language. But other studies indicate that teachers show preferences for male students.
7. Non-whites tend to score slightly higher in SQ than white students. This result is surprising because most of the 732 students surveyed were in classes that had a majority of white students. The result indicates that SQ might be helpful in promoting college admissions of minorities on a non affirmative action basis. Teachers find it hard to distinguish between academic and non-academic skills in evaluating students; their recommendations thus show some bias against minorities.
Go to:
Main College Admissions PageGo to:
Home PageComments to:VanSloan@yahoo.com
The ads below are placed by Google.com - they are not necessarily endorsed by this site