Reliability of anecdotal material in the first annual Science Talent Search

Abstract

The third hurdle in the selection of winners of scholarships in the Science Talent Search are the personal recommendations by teachers, which are anecdotal in form. When 25 raters evaluated 50 recommendations, the estimated reliabilities of the total rating scores ranged from .50 to .86. Reliability estimates of the 10 individual categories on the recommendation blank showed coefficients ranging from .36 to .87. The highest correlation coefficient for boys or girls between the recommendation blank and 2 of the other hurdles—the Science Aptitude Examination and rank in high school class—was .21. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)