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,…

This study conducted in collaboration with a postsecondary institution highlights results from a concurrent validity study of administering ACT® section tests to their entering freshmen who previously took the ACT test in high school. Students' ACT scores obtained from section retesting were found to be as predictive of first-term grade point…

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…

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…

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…

The optional ACT® writing test is designed to measure students' writing skills -- specifically, those skills emphasized and acquired in high school English classes and important for success in entry-level college composition courses. The test was first introduced in 2005, and in fall 2015, a number of enhancements to the former version were…

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®…

The Global Assessment Certificate™ (GAC) program helps international students develop the academic knowledge, learning practices, and English language skills required to enroll at universities and earn a bachelor's degree (ACT, 2019). The GAC program includes three levels of instruction (Level I, Level II, and Level III), each entailing a…

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…

Employment status in high school has been shown to have a negative relationship with measures of academic achievement which some researchers have attributed to student characteristics such as demographics and socioeconomic status. The current study investigated differences in the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of "working…

We examined the validity of 10 psychosocial factors for predicting retention status (stay, transfer, or drop out) at the start of second year of college by fitting a mixed-effects multinomial logistic regression model. Data consisted of retention records of 9,364 students from 31 four-year institutions. Predictors included commonly used variables…

Many students who earn a bachelor's degree also aspire to earn a graduate degree. In this study, we examined student and institutional characteristics that are related to graduate school enrollment. Student characteristics included demographic characteristics; high school performance measures, coursework taken, and extracurricular activities;…

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…

We derived an index of high school academic rigor by optimizing the prediction of first-year college GPA based on high school courses taken, grades, and indicators of advanced coursework. Using a large data set (n~108,000) and nominal parameterization of high school course outcomes, the high school academic rigor (HSAR) index capitalizes on…