Many schools, districts, and states administer the PreACT® and/or the ACT® test to measure readiness for college and careers. A recent study suggests that these test scores can also be used to help identify students who are academically prepared and may benefit from some of the more rigorous courses offered in high schools across the nation,…

Social and emotional (SE) skills are known to be linked to many important life outcomes, some of which fall in the academic domain. For example, meta-analytic analyses show that conscientiousness (a trait related to self-management, perseverance, and being organized and planful) accounts for 28% of the explained variance in academic performance…

This paper documents the development of the Mosaic Readiness Index, a score that is reported for individuals who take the high school version of Mosaic by ACT®: Social Emotional Learning Assessment (hereafter referred to as the Mosaic assessment). The Mosaic Readiness Index is designed to predict high school academic outcomes--namely high school…

Social and emotional (SE) skills are known to be linked with many important life outcomes, including academic performance, performance on standardized college entrance exams, and college enrollment, although research on enrollment is limited. In this report, the authors present data points from a study that evaluated test-criterion validity…

We examined how ACT® Aspire® (from grades 8 to 10), PreACT® (from grade 10), and ACT® test scores (from grades 10 and 11) relate to students' chances of scoring a 3 or higher as well as 4 or higher on selected Advanced Placement (AP) exams. Data for the study was available for 49,220 students from 318 high schools who had taken at least one AP…

This brief presents a method for predicting the impact of school closures on average ACT® test scores. The purpose is to illustrate a methodology and major conditions that should be considered in predicting aggregate ACT scores when school closes prematurely and learning and testing are disrupted. Across three scenarios examined herein, the impact…

This brief summarizes five benefits of schools providing the PreACT® to all their students. The PreACT 8/9 (an earlier version of the PreACT test that is more appropriate for students in grades 8 and 9) and PreACT assessments are designed to provide students with an indication of their educational progress in the context of preparing for the ACT®…

This study investigated the moderating roles of motivation, social engagement, and self-regulation in predicting academic achievement in grades 11-12 for 3,281 7th-9th graders. Standardized assessments of college readiness (ACT® Explore and the ACT® test) and student self-report measures of social emotional learning factors (ACT® Engage® Grades…

The authors examined the relationships of ACT Aspire test scores and high school course grades, AP test scores, and Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test scores, demonstrating criterion-related as well as convergent and discriminant validity evidence. They found that ACT Aspire test scores are strong…

The findings of the Gaertner and McClarty article (2015) raised awareness on two extremely important topics related to college readiness: First, to effect change, we must measure students' progression towards college readiness throughout their K-12 career rather than just at the culmination of high school. Second, college readiness encompasses…

Many academically-advanced youth take the ACT® test in 7th grade for academic talent searches and again in 11th or 12th grade for college admissions. We leveraged this sample of 460,033 students, taking an exploratory analytic approach to examine trends in academic growth from 1996 to 2016. We examined potential predictors of academic growth,…

This study investigated the relationships between social and emotional learning factors and course failure for 9,308 7th-9th graders. Student self-report measures of social and emotional learning (SEL) and biographical factors (ACT® Engage® Grades 6-9) were analyzed through multiple regression models with propensity score weighting techniques. The…

We examined 482,418 students who took the ACT in the seventh grade and again in high school, taking an exploratory analytic approach to examine academic growth trends from 1996 to 2017. Predictors included sociodemographics, interests, high school (HS) characteristics, HS coursework and GPA, and extracurriculars, which explained 25% of the…

In this research report, we review commonly held beliefs about test-optional policies and practices. Focusing solely on empirical evidence, we highlight research findings that directly address the state intentions and actual outcomes of such practices. Throughout the paper, we raise concerns with test-optional policies as they pertain both to…

In this technical brief, the authors summarize empirical evidence from their full report comparing the stated intentions and actual outcomes of test-optional practices. An overview of five commonly stated assertions of test-optional practices along with empirical evidence that contradicts these assertions is provided in this brief. [For the full…