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The purposes of this study were to determine (1) the usefulness of ACT composite scores in assessing and predicting achievement and attrition of disadvantaged and regular freshmen at the University of Nebraska at Omaha during the 1972-73 academic year, and (2) the effectiveness of a special program in keeping low income students in school during their freshman year. Factors considered were: ACT scores, college grades, race, sex, socioeconomic status, financial aid, and employment. It was found that ACT scores were effective predictors of college grades among white students, but not among black students, regardless of income level. ACT scores were also effective predictors of attrition/persistence only among regular students in large samples, college grades being more potent for this purpose. The special program appeared more successful than the regular program in preventing attrition, especially among men and blacks; and receiving financial aid was better than not receiving financial aid. (Author/BW)

Utilizing course grade data from 22 four-year higher education institutions, this study highlights the trends in first-year grade point average (FYGPA) between the 2017-2018 and 2021-2022 academic years, the period immediately before and after the pandemic disrupted both K12 and higher education. Results showed that while FYGPAs generally increased at institutions with more selective admission standards, especially private, more selective institutions, FYGPAs remained relatively unchanged at the less selective institutions. Over these five years, high school grade point average (HSGPA) generally increased among incoming students at nearly every institution while SAT® scores generally decreased. The results of institution-level logistic regression analyses indicated that students with the same pre-college academic achievement levels as measured by SAT scores and HSGPA were more likely to earn a FYGPA of 3.0 or higher in later cohort years than were students in the 2017 cohort. Faculty survey results, based on more than 3,000 respondents from over 1,200 higher education institutions, complement the administrative data analyses in this study. The survey findings suggest college faculty believe that the characteristics of incoming students as well as their academic performance in college are weaker now than in the past. Implications for future higher education research and facilitating nuanced K12 and higher education conversations on more effectively preparing students for college are discussed.

Most selective colleges implemented test-optional admissions during the pandemic, making college entrance exam scores optional for applicants. We draw on descriptive, two-way fixed effects, and event study methods to examine variation in test-optional implementation during the pandemic and how implementation relates to selectivity and enrollment. For "test-optional" colleges during the pandemic, we found substantial variation in policy type (e.g., test optional, test free) and whether the policy extended to all applicants and scholarship consideration. Findings suggest test-optional implementation related to increases in Black student enrollment, mostly at moderately selective colleges and when policies extended to all applicants and scholarships. At highly selective colleges, findings suggest test-optional implementation related to an increase in applications but not consistent gains in enrollment.

We study the extent and consequences of biases against immigrants exhibited by high school teachers in Finland. Compared to native students, immigrant students receive 0.06 standard deviation units lower scores from teachers than from blind graders. This effect is almost entirely driven by grading penalties incurred by high-performing immigrant students and is largest in subjects where teachers have more discretion in grading. While teacher-assigned grades on the matriculation exam are not used for tertiary enrollment decisions, we show that immigrant students who attend schools with biased teachers are less likely to continue to higher education. [This report was funded by the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland (SLS) and Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation.]

This paper studies the causal impacts of public universities on the outcomes of their marginally admitted students. I use administrative admission records spanning all 35 public universities in Texas, which collectively enroll 10 percent of American public university students, to systematically identify and employ decentralized cutoffs in SAT/ACT scores that generate discontinuities in admission and enrollment. The typical marginally admitted student completes an additional year of education in the four-year sector, is 12 percentage points more likely to earn a bachelor's degree, and eventually earns 5-10 percent more than their marginally rejected but otherwise identical counterpart. Marginally admitted students pay no additional tuition costs thanks to offsetting grant aid; cost-benefit calculations show internal rates of return of 19-23 percent for the marginal students themselves, 10-12 percent for society (which must pay for the additional education), and 3-4 percent for the government budget. Finally, I develop a method to disentangle separate effects for students on the extensive margin of the four-year sector versus those who would fall back to another four-year school if rejected. Substantially larger extensive margin effects drive the results. [The Robert H. Topel Faculty Research Fund at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business provided the research funding.]

The 2024 Nebraska Higher Education Progress Report is the 18th annual progress report designed to provide the Nebraska Legislature with comparative statistics to monitor and evaluate progress toward achieving three key priorities for Nebraska's postsecondary education system. These priorities were developed by the 2003 LR 174 Higher Education Task Force and described in detail in a 2004 report published by the Coordinating Commission. They are: (1) Increase the number of students who enter postsecondary education in Nebraska; (2) Increase the percentage of students who enroll and successfully complete a degree; and (3) Reduce, eliminate and then reverse the net out-migration of Nebraskans with high levels of educational attainment. This report is a comparative analysis that measures and evaluates performance in respect to each priority. [For the "2023 Nebraska Higher Education Progress Report," see ED627820.]

Who ends up in the teacher workforce is greatly influenced by who is admitted into teacher education programs (TEPs). To better understand how the preferences of teacher education faculty might shape admissions of STEM teacher candidates, we surveyed faculty who teach content or methods courses to STEM teacher candidates across five universities. Faculty reported that they most value information collected from individual interviews with applicants and data on the number of STEM courses taken in college and their performance in these courses, and least value data on university admissions tests, high school GPA, and teacher licensure test scores. When we investigate faculty members' revealed preferences through a conjoint analysis, we find that faculty most value applicants who have worked with students from diverse backgrounds and applicants from a marginalized racial or ethnic community, and least value whether they received high grades in math and/or science courses. Finally, we find significant variation in these perceptions across respondents in different faculty roles, who teach different courses, and from different institutions: for example, Arts and Sciences faculty tend to value TEP applicants' performance in college STEM courses relatively more than STEM education faculty, while STEM education faculty tend to value applicants' race and ethnicity relatively more than Arts and Sciences faculty.

This report investigates the progression of students from GCSE to A level in the same (or related) subject. That is, for a range of subjects, the proportion of GCSE students who continue to study the subject at A level is calculated. To understand possible sources of variation progression rates are broken down by GCSE grade and student gender. Finally, the report considers relationships between GCSE and A level grades for those students who do progress. To evaluate whether there have been any changes in progression over time, references are made to previous versions of this analysis.

This brief examines which students in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) are more likely to earn the STEM endorsement and whether STEM endorsement completion predicts college enrollment. Analyses show that gender, STEM magnet program enrollment, and cumulative high school grade point average (GPA) predict STEM endorsement completion. While STEM endorsement completion is associated with college choice, the relationship appears to be explained by academic performance measures, particularly SAT scores and GPA. In fact, if STEM and non-STEM students had the same test scores and grades, college enrollment gaps at 2-year-or-less; 4-year, less-selective; and 4-year, more-selective institutions would reduce. Overall, the findings suggest that the STEM endorsement functions, by design or coincidence, as a funneling mechanism for high-performing students into more-selective colleges and universities.

Charter schools are public schools governed by an independent board of directors that come into existence through a contract with an authorized public chartering agency. This report, known as the Illinois Charter School Biennial Report, provides legislators, policymakers, educators, and the general public with information regarding the state of Illinois' charter schools. In compliance with Section 27A-12 of the Charter Schools Law [105 ILCS 5/27A-12], it contains information that: (1) compares the academic performance of charter school students to the performance of their peers in traditional public schools; (2) analyzes whether or not exemption from certain regulations allows charter schools to better meet their stated goals and objectives; and (3) recommends any changes to the Charter Schools Law. This report also includes authorizer-specific information for each school district authorizer in the state, including: (1) the authorizer's strategic vision for chartering and progress toward achieving that vision; (2) the status of each authorizer's charter school portfolio; and (3) the authorizing functions provided by the authorizer to the charter schools under its purview, including its operating costs and expenses. [For the 2019-2020, 2020-2021 report, see ED618454.]

Students who perform well at school academically are more likely to complete Year 12 and experience smoother transitions from education to employment. However, disentangling the effects of prior academic achievement on later performance from other confounding factors, such as socioeconomic status, has proved difficult. This study uses data from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY), in conjunction with data from the National Assessment Program -- Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) and MySchool, to consider the contextual factors that affect a student's academic trajectory. Using measures of students' academic achievement, demographic factors, information about the school they attended and subsequent outcomes, the study explores the association between students' academic performance at school and their schooling outcomes, as evidenced by their Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR). It investigates whether Year 9 NAPLAN scores can be used to predict students' likelihood of obtaining an ATAR upon completing Year 12, and the likelihood of obtaining a high ATAR, controlling for several demographic characteristics.

The Alaska Performance Scholarship (APS) rewards students who strive to excel in high school and continue their education in degree and certificate programs in Alaska. This report covers the high school, postsecondary, Alaska residency, and workforce outcomes of the APS program between Fall 2011-2023. [This report was prepared by Resource Data, Inc.]

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. In this technical brief, the authors evaluated whether the five SE skills measured with the Mosaic™ by ACT® predict postsecondary enrollment and retention above and beyond household income, high school grade point average, and Composite score on the ACT® test.

The Tuition Opportunity Program for Students (subsequently renamed the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students, also known as TOPS), Louisiana's merit-based student aid program, was created via Act 1375 of the 1997 Regular Legislative Session. The first freshman class to receive TOPS awards entered postsecondary education in the fall of 1998. Act 1202 of the 2001 Regular Legislative Session charged the Board of Regents (BOR) with developing a uniform TOPS reporting system for policy analysis and program evaluation to provide accurate data and statistics relative to the program's impact on the state and students. To satisfy the reporting requirements, BOR staff developed interfaces between the major systems needed to identify and track TOPS students through the postsecondary education enrollment cycle. In addition to mandating the development of a TOPS reporting system, Act 1202 also required the BOR to prepare a report on various aspects of the TOPS Program. This report contains data from public and private institutions, except for graduation rates, retention rates, and time-to-degree. Private institutions are currently not required to report this information to the Board of Regents. In this year's report, several improvements to the granularity of the underlying data. These improved data have allowed us to refine the calculations of retention, graduation, and time-to-degree. These subtle changes in methodology should be taken into account when comparing this report to previous reports.

This joint study by the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research and the To&Through Project points to important differences between the four-year and six-year completion rates for Chicago Public Schools (CPS) graduates who received bachelor's degrees. It investigates four-year and six-year college completion trends for 2004-14 CPS graduates, as well as patterns of bachelor's degree completion for students who attended different colleges and different high schools, students with different GPAs and ACT scores, and students with different races/ethnicities and genders. As college application deadlines approach for students across Chicago and across the country, the four-year and six-year college completion rates could guide students' and families' decisions on where to apply and enroll.

For this project, ACT developed math and science items that attempted to represent unique aspects of cultures, raise awareness of social justice issues, promote cultural learning, be authentic and relatable, be comprehensible, and represent people in positive, nonstereotypical ways. Creating culturally relevant items was a new challenge for ACT test developers, and it involved many rounds of review by diverse content experts. The developers learned that creating culturally relevant items is a more demanding process, but they all reported that it was a positive, enriching experience. During focus groups, high school students viewed the culturally relevant items alongside non--culturally relevant items measuring the same skills. The students expressed interest in seeing culturally relevant items on the ACT, and they reported learning about cultures from the items. However, many students expressed concern about the additional time required to answer longer items during a timed high-stakes assessment like the ACT.

This report looks at the provision of GCSE subjects in England in 2021. Provision in a GCSE subject is defined as the number or percentage of schools with at least one student taking the subject. This may not cover all of the actual 'provision' since schools might offer to provide a subject, but none of their students wants to study it. This report was produced using publicly available data from the Department for Education's (DfE) "Find and compare schools in England" service. The dataset consisted of Key Stage 4 (KS4) entry numbers for all GCSE subjects in each school in England. Other school information, such as schools' sex composition, school type, and admissions policy were also available. However, some data (available in previous years) was not available in the 2021 dataset, including GCSE grades achieved and the percentage of disadvantaged students in each school. The decision was made to use data (for these tables only) from the 2019 data set. The report presents only the provision of GCSE subjects in schools with students taking GCSEs in 2021. Only GCSEs (9-1) full course (both single and double award) were counted for this report. Schools with at least 10 students taking GCSEs were included in the analysis. In this report, the level of provision is presented by the following school classifications: school type, school attainment, school deprivation level, school sex composition, and school size. However, it should be noted that the analysis is at the simplest level and takes no account of interactions between these classifications.

The PreACT® suite of assessments (PreACT® 8/9, PreACT®, and PreACT® Secure™) can be used to monitor students' progress toward college and career readiness. Scores are classified into one of three readiness levels based on chances of meeting the ACT College Readiness Benchmark. This data byte presents the updated score ranges for each readiness level which will be applied to the PreACT® assessments' reports beginning with tests administered during the 2024-2025 academic year.

Over the past several years, content experts, psychometricians, and researchers have been hard at work developing, refining, and studying the digital SAT. The work is grounded in foundational best practices and advances in measurement and assessment design, with fairness for students informing all of the work done. This paper shares learnings from key research studies that have informed the design and development of the digital SAT and the current understanding of how well the assessment is working for its intended uses.

Traditionally, a college grade point average (GPA) of 2.00 or higher has signified that a student has made acceptable academic progress and avoided academic probation. However, having a 3.00 or higher has signified a level of success that is often required for admission to graduate school, maintaining a scholarship or enrollment in an honors program, and for consideration by corporate recruiters. Focusing on students with a first-year GPA (FYGPA) between 2.00 and 2.99, this study examined degree completion rates and fourth-year cumulative grade point average (CGPA) across a sample of 97,282 students enrolled at 73 four-year institutions. Results showed that for students with FYGPAs between 2.50 and 2.99, just 48% graduated within four years and only 45% had a fourth-year CGPA of 3.00 or higher. For students with FYGPAs between 2.00 and 2.49, just 28% graduated within four years and only 18% had a fourth-year CGPA of 3.00 or higher. These students with a 2.00 to 2.99 FYGPA were also more likely to be first-generation college students, underrepresented minority students, and students from more challenging neighborhood environments. Logistic regression analyses showed that students' chances of graduating within four years and pulling their CGPAs above 3.00 given a FYGPA below 3.00 were quite low. Given the implications of a low but acceptable FYGPA, early identification of students who may benefit from particular academic advising initiatives as they transition to college may be key to keeping all doors open for as many students as possible, doors encountered both throughout and after college.

This pilot study examines digital SAT® score relationships with first-year college performance. Results show that digital SAT scores predict college performance as well as paper and pencil SAT scores, and that digital SAT scores meaningfully improve our understanding of a student's readiness for college above high school grade point average (HSGPA) alone. In this study, there was a 22% improvement in the prediction of college performance when the SAT and HSGPA were used together, instead of using the HSGPA alone. For STEM majors, the added SAT value was 38%. Similar results were found when the outcome examined was course credits earned in the first year, a metric for understanding student progress toward degree completion. Findings from this study show that the SAT remains a powerful tool for understanding students' readiness for college, for course placement and academic major field decisions, scholarship and honors program decisions, and identifying students who may need academic support.

The impact of test-optional college admissions policies depends on whether applicants act strategically in disclosing test scores. We analyze individual applicants' standardized test scores and disclosure behavior to 50 major US colleges for entry in fall 2021, when COVID-19 prompted widespread adoption of test-optional policies. Applicants withheld low scores and disclosed high scores, including seeking admissions advantages by conditioning their disclosure choices on their other academic characteristics, colleges' selectivity and testing policy statements, and the COVID-related test access challenges of the applicants' local peers. We find only modest differences in test disclosure strategies by applicants' race and socioeconomic characteristics.

In response to widening achievement gaps and increased demand for post-secondary education, local and federal governments across the US have enacted policies that have boosted high school graduation rates without an equivalent rise in student achievement, suggesting a decline in academic standards. To the extent that academic standards can shape effort decisions, these trends can have important implications for human capital accumulation. This paper provides both theoretical and empirical evidence of the causal effect of academic standards on student effort and achievement. We develop a theoretical model of endogenous student effort that depends on grading policies, finding that designs that do not account for either the spread of student ability or the magnitude of leniency can increase achievement gaps. Empirically, under a research design that leverages variation from a statewide grading policy and school entry rules, we find that an increase in leniency mechanically increased student GPA without increasing student achievement. At the same time, this policy induced students to increase their school absences. We uncover stark heterogeneity of effects across student ability, with the gains in GPA driven entirely by high ability students and the reductions in attendance driven entirely by low ability students. These differences in responses compound across high school and ultimately widen long-term achievement gaps as measured by ACT scores.

Postsecondary readiness enables students to pursue their dreams, contribute to society, and thrive in the global economy. Since many accountability systems include a postsecondary readiness indicator in formal evaluations of schools and districts, it benefits educators, families, researchers, policymakers, and other education partners to understand how postsecondary readiness is defined, measured, and used. This brief, produced by the Region 15 Comprehensive Center, explains how states define and measure postsecondary readiness, an important step toward improving how such measures function within state accountability systems. Region 15 Comprehensive Center staff identified four main findings about the use of postsecondary readiness indicators, the types of measures included in the indicators, and how much weight indicators are given in accountability systems: (1) More than three of four ESSA plans contained a postsecondary readiness indicator; (2) States included three main types of measures in postsecondary readiness indicators: academic, career, and military; (3) Postsecondary readiness indicators focused most heavily on academic and career measures and less on military measures; and (4) Weighting of the postsecondary readiness indicator varies widely from state to state.

High-performing first-generation and economically disadvantaged students are more likely to attend colleges and universities that are less competitive than their academic qualifications allow, which makes them less likely to graduate. EMERGE is a multiyear, personalized college advising program that aims to address this problem by preparing academically high-performing first-generation and economically disadvantaged students to attend and graduate from the nation's most selective colleges and universities. The costs associated with this high-touch approach warrant investigating how EMERGE compares with low-touch information packets and general district support. This first-ever causal study of EMERGE compared students who were admitted to HISD's EMERGE program with comparable students who applied but were not admitted and were close to the admission cutoff. The analyses showed students admitted to HISD's EMERGE program were significantly more likely to apply to selective colleges, submit more applications to selective colleges, and enroll in selective colleges. Information packets were ineffective.

Colleges and universities have become increasingly concerned that requiring standardized test scores for admission is an impediment to campus diversity, and these objections have grown with the recent focus on societal inequities. In addition, the pandemic led to the cancellation of test administrations, which, in turn, caused many institutions to eliminate admissions test requirements. These developments present an opportunity to reconsider the role of college admissions testing. The report begins by recounting the history of college admissions in the US, the relationship of admissions tests to intelligence testing and military testing, and the motivations for developing standardized exams to replace the admissions methods used at the turn of the twentieth century. Next, it describes the college admissions tests used today, along with their role in the admissions process, their advantages and limitations, and the ongoing debates about their fairness. Finally it discusses the future of admissions and admissions testing and end with a discussion of the concept of meritocracy as it applies to college admissions.

The goal of this study was to further evaluate the impact of IXL Math on math learning outcomes. Using a quasi-experimental design with matched treatment and control groups, this analysis utilized data from 312 public schools in Mississippi during the 2021-2022 school year. The middle school analysis included 272 schools (136 treatment, 136 control), and the high school analysis included 40 schools (20 control, 20 treatment). IXL adoption in treatment schools ranged from about 1 question answered per week to more than 140 questions answered per week. Even with these variable adoption rates, students' test scores demonstrated positive and statistically significant effects of IXL usage, as measured by the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program (MAAP) in middle school and the ACT in high school.

ACT is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to help people achieve education and workplace success. To help fulfill that mission, ACT offers school-day testing programs that provide all students with state- or district-funded access to its college readiness and admissions assessment, removing barriers to testing and opening doors to postsecondary opportunities. During the 2021-2022 academic year, over 1.3 million students, across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, participated in ACT school-day testing through state or district testing programs. Of these 1.3 million students, it is estimated that 59% could be considered members of underserved student populations according to at least one criterion. In this brief, the authors describe six evidence-backed benefits of school-day ACT testing: (1) Removes Barriers to Testing; (2) Increases the Number of Students Identified as College Ready; (3) Increases the Number of Students Who Are Contacted by Colleges; (4) Provides a Complete Picture for Research; (5) Leads to Improvement in College Enrollment; and (6) Provides Valuable Information to Students Navigating Different Paths.

Social and emotional (SE) skills are interpersonal, self-regulatory, and task-related behaviors that are important for adaptation to and successful performance across all domains of life, including education and workplace settings (Casillas et al., 2015). Family engagement affects the development of these important skills (Brooks & Lambert, 2019). As such, parents and caregivers are viewed as an integral part of social and emotional learning (SEL). For instance, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) includes families and caregivers as part of their model of SEL (2023). Given the importance of family involvement, a growing number of studies have examined the perceptions of family members toward SEL. For example, studies have found that parents support teaching students SE skills in schools (Committee for Children, 2022; Daley et al., 2002; Horowitz, 2022; National PTA, 2022). Additionally, parents perceive SEL positively (Committee for Children, 2022; Murano et al., 2022) and think SE skills are important to develop (Daley et al., 2021). These positive perceptions suggest that caregivers are generally supportive of SEL. To examine this support more directly, the current study surveyed caregivers of high school students.

Social and emotional (SE) skills are "individual capacities that (a) are manifested in consistent patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, (b) can be developed through formal and informal learning experiences, and (c) influence important socioeconomic outcomes throughout the individual's life" (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2015, p. 34). Fortunately, students can improve their SE skills through social and emotional learning (SEL), which refers to programming designed to develop students' SE skills (Mahoney et al., 2018). Caregivers play a critical role in SEL by modeling and reinforcing their students' SE skill development. Caregivers may be more likely to participate willingly in SEL if they perceive SE skills and SEL interventions as beneficial. The current study examined the extent to which the views of caregivers align with the benefits demonstrated in past research on SE skills and SEL.

In recent years, schools and large-scale assessment developers across the United States have been providing English learners with language supports when they take tests to reduce construct-irrelevant variance, or errors in test scores due to factors that are extraneous to the construct being assessed (Thorndike et al., 1991). Some of these supports are linguistically related, such as word-to-word bilingual dictionaries and translated test directions, whereas other supports are linguistically unrelated, such as giving students extra time and testing them in a small group (Schissel, 2014). An appropriate support is one that reduces construct-irrelevant variance caused by limited language proficiency while producing comparable scores between English learners and non-ELs (Rios et al., 2020). Several studies have found that language supports are effective for improving English learners' test performance and reducing test score gaps between ELs and non-ELs (Kieffer et al., 2009; Li & Suen, 2012; Pennock-Roman & Rivera, 2011). Other studies have found that although some supports such as extra time could benefit both ELs and non-ELs, these supports tend to benefit students who are ELs to a greater extent (Sireci et al., 2003). In this report, ACT surveyed English learners who took the ACT® test on a National test date in February or April 2022 to learn about their experiences and perceptions when taking tests with language supports. The purposes of this survey were to (1) understand the types of supports English learners used when they took tests at school and when they took the ACT; (2) investigate how ELs felt about these supports, whether they thought the supports were useful or not; (3) explore whether using these supports when taking tests was associated with self-reported confidence on test performance or with test anxiety; and (4) learn why some ELs did not use supports when taking tests in school or when taking the ACT. [For the summary, "School Supports for English Learners during the Pandemic. ACT Research. Data Byte," see ED629110.]

The SAT and ACT have held a controversial place in American education for generations. The conventional wisdom has come to suggest that these college entrance tests are harmful to educational equity because they discriminate against students from low-income families and other students whose backgrounds may put them at a disadvantage, such as Black, Hispanic, or Native American students. This brief challenges the notion that college admissions exams are at the heart of inequities observed in college admissions, higher education attainment, and broader social disparities. More specifically, the brief addresses five ideas that have become conventional wisdom in some quarters: "College admissions exams are racist," "College admissions exams limit students' pathways into quality higher education," "Other parts of college application packets promote equity better than entrance exams," "Admissions officers should just focus on grades," and "The future of college admissions is 'test optional.'"