New way to measure educational success: ’Student capital’

Share on: Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Researchers at the University of Michigan have come up with a new way to measure educational achievement by looking at the total effect of the many traits and abilities it takes for students to succeed in school. They call this quantity "student capital. In the research reported in Science Advances, Christopher Quarles and colleagues at the U-M School of Information say it would be valuable if education efforts were focused on building skills and resources more broadly to improve this form of capital. "We know from previous research that students' ability to be successful in school is related to many things: academic preparation, family responsibilities, how much money you have, whether you have a stable place to live, self-confidence, self-discipline, etc.,” said Quarles, a doctoral student at the school who previously taught mathematics at the community college level. "We were able to measure the total effects of all of these factors together in groups of community college students. Student capital doesn't function like standardized tests such as IQ or SAT scores, the researchers explain. It is a pool of resources and is limited in any community of students.