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Large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, are becoming increasingly prominent. Their use is becoming more and more popular to assist with simple tasks, such as summarizing documents, translating languages, rephrasing sentences, or answering questions. Reports like McKinsey's (Chui, & Yee, 2023) estimate that by implementing LLMs, corporations could see a potential growth of $4.4 trillion annually in corporate benefits, while Nielsen (2023) estimates a 66% increase in employee productivity when using LLMs and other forms of generative artificial intelligence (AI). Can we use ChatGPT in the field of social and emotional learning assessment development to enhance our productivity? Some have examined how social and emotional (SE) skills are related to ChatGPT usage, such as cheating in the academic domain (Greitemeyer & Kastenmüller, 2023). In another study, researchers (de Winter et al., 2023) had ChatGPT generate a large number of personas and complete several SE skill measures. They then carried out several analyses such as a factor analysis and correlations with outcome measures and determined how similar the results were to previous research using human-completed SE skill measures. In the current study, rather than have ChatGPT complete SE skill measures, we sought to have ChatGPT create SE skill measures. Ultimately, we will compare a ChatGPT-generated assessment with a human-generated assessment in terms of reliability and validity.

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.

There is growing interest in artificial intelligence (AI) tools, especially high-profile tools like ChatGPT, and these tools now appear to be part of the education experience for many high school students. To investigate students' use of AI tools for school assignments, their impressions of how using the tools might affect them cognitively and academically, and their thoughts on using AI tools to write their college admissions essays, ACT developed a survey in June 2023 which was administered to a large nationwide sample of students in Grades 10 through 12. In this study, almost half of the participating students reported that they had used AI tools, and the most common tool they used was ChatGPT. Among students who did not use AI tools, the top reason for not using them was having no interest in them. About two thirds of students also reported that they did not trust the information provided by AI tools, and a little over half indicated that they did not know enough about AI tools to use them. Students with higher academic performance were significantly more likely to use AI tools than were students with lower academic performance. Findings show that these tools appear to have much potential to enhance student learning, but there are concerns about appropriate use and potential negative outcomes.

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.

Students in 11th or 12th grade will make important decisions about their post--high school plans, if they have not already done so. Some will plan to enter the workforce right after high school. Others will make decisions about pursuing an education goal. Will that goal be a nondegree credential or an academic degree? For those considering an academic degree, is it still worthwhile to earn a bachelor's degree, or is an associate's degree a better value? Students might find these decisions challenging for societal and economic reasons, including concerns about the value of a college degree and, for many students, the expense of a college education. This study was intended to gather 11th- and 12th-grade students' opinions of their education plans (e.g., their level of confidence in being able to complete their education goals), their opinions on postsecondary education and the value of a bachelor's degree, and information on their primary sources of encouragement (e.g., parents, teachers) for attending college and the factors important to their choice of a college major.

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.

Numerous studies have demonstrated that social and emotional skills (SE skills) can predict academic achievement, including grades and test scores, and prior research at ACT has shown that stronger SE skills are associated with higher ACT scores. However, despite the abundant evidence that SE skills are beneficial for students in general, less is known about the relationship between SE skills and academic achievement among students with disabilities, who make up approximately 15% of all public school students (National Center for Education Statistics, 2023). In this study, the relationship between SE skills and ACT scores among students with and without disabilities was examined. Using data from the Mosaic™ by ACT® Social and Emotional Learning assessment, two matched groups of 410 students each were created, one whose members had disabilities and one whose members did not. Findings show a positive relationship between SE skills and ACT Composite scores in both students with disabilities and students without disabilities.

In the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic began to substantially disrupt the educational experiences of high school students. In addition to experiencing the pandemic disruption in high schools, students were also likely aware of disruptions in colleges and in the labor market. Fast-forward to the spring of 2023. The students who are now graduating from high school are those who started high school shortly before the pandemic began to significantly affect the U.S. The pandemic was a defining aspect of their high school journey, leading to many circumstances that made these students' high school years different from those of other graduating classes. To understand how the pandemic affected students' thoughts about their college and career choices, the authors surveyed a random sample of 12th-grade students in September 2022. As part of a broader survey on the college and career preparation of students from the class of 2023, the authors asked students to indicate which, if any, of the thoughts they had about college and career choices were affected by the pandemic. As a follow-up, the authors also included an open-ended question asking for more details on how the pandemic affected these thoughts. In this brief, the authors share what they learned from 1,549 high school students from the class of 2023.

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.

In the fall of 2020, ACT and the Mississippi Community College Board (MCCB) entered into a data sharing agreement in order to examine the validity of ACT's® WorkKeys® Assessments. WorkKeys Assessments measure students' foundational workplace skills. The focus of this technical brief is to summarize the results of several validity studies using a sample from MCCB. This brief examines three different types of validity: (1) convergent; (2) discriminant; and (3) criterion-related. To examine convergent and discriminant validity, the relationship between WorkKeys and the Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) was examined. To assess criterion-related validity, the relationships between WorkKeys and several educational outcomes were examined.

With the rapid advances in technology (e.g., the internet, hardware, and software), technology-supported learning environments have widely emerged in K-16 learning and instruction. A survey found that 73% of teachers had their students use smartphones to conduct internet searches, and almost half of students reported using e-readers and tablets to complete in-class assignments (Purcell et. al., 2013). More recently, a survey of high school students (Moore & Vitale, 2018) reported daily use of technology or technological devices for school-related activities, including checking grades, emailing the teacher, researching information, and using school related web-based applications. The integration of educational technology (EdTech) or digital tools into learning and instruction is essential to education success. In this study, the authors aim to examine student factors that may contribute to their usage of EdTech or digital tools for learning by looking at students' self-reported usage of a wide range of tools designed to aid students in learning activities within their schools. Students' use of different learning technologies was examined in a model with three core constructs of the Technology Acceptance Model, two external constructs (i.e., self-efficacy and cognitive engagement), and three background measures (i.e., student-computer ratio at school, poverty level at the school, and students' high school grade point average).

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.]

A successful transition from high school to college requires that students have the necessary knowledge, skills, and mindsets in both academic and nonacademic areas. College preparation is a long process. Students complete a series of tasks including taking academic courses, searching for potential colleges, taking standardized tests, choosing a program of study, writing a college application essay, submitting applications to colleges, and applying for financial aid. High schools and colleges offer a wide range of programs and services to support and guide students in this process. However, the COVID-19 pandemic caused unexpected changes in students' high school experiences, including their college preparation experiences. To learn how students from the high school class of 2023 prepared for college, the authors reached out to a random sample of high school seniors in September 2022. Students were asked to report on their preparedness for college, the college preparation activities in which they participated, the college preparation supports they received, and the supports they wished they had received. In this brief, is shared what was learned from 1,485 students who reported that they planned to attend a postsecondary institution the fall after graduating high school.

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 coursework, high school grades, and ACT test scores. Compared to the Mosaic assessment scores for individual constructs, the Mosaic Readiness Index more strongly predicts academic readiness because this index optimizes its prediction using item-level data. This paper describes the (a) rationale behind the index, (b) sample of data and statistical methods used for estimating the index's scoring parameters, and (c) results that show how well the index predicts academic readiness. The authors also document the development of the percentile ranks and score levels that are reported for the index and compare average scores for different groups of students.

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 even when controlling for cognitive ability (Mammadov, 2021). Data also reveal that SE skills are related to performance on standardized college entrance exams (Anguiano-Carrasco et al., 2022). In a recent study with long-term tracking of high school students, those who came from schools with a strong emphasis on SE skill development were more likely to enroll in college within two years of high school graduation (Jackson et al., 2022). There is, however, little research on SE skills predicting college enrollment. This study examines the extent to which SE skills have incremental validity in predicting postsecondary enrollment above socioeconomic status (SES), high school grade point average (HS GPA), and ACT Composite scores.

As students transition between high school and college or career, many have begun to consider their future career paths or want to identify career options that will best fit them. To better understand the types of career characteristics that students want to explore, this study surveys a random sample of 11th and 12th-grade students who registered for the June 2022 ACT National test. Students were presented a comprehensive list of career characteristics and asked to rate how likely they were to look at each type of characteristic when searching for future career options. This report shares the top 15 career characteristics students reported they were extremely likely or likely to explore. Through the career exploration intentions of high school students, findings from the survey underscore that students want to be savvy consumers of career information. They want to explore characteristics (e.g., occupation salary, work tasks, interests, skills) that many adults in the labor force found helpful. Students understand that occupation details are needed to establish their own preferences, that characteristics such as earnings offer different yet valuable ways to view occupations, and that characteristics important for career success will help them recognize what it takes to prepare for occupations. Taken together, these findings indicate that students want to explore relevant information that can support good-fit career choices.

The college major choice is a critical decision students make as they progress along their education and career pathways. In addition to defining what programs of study students will take during college, major choice affects students' success and satisfaction. However, the National Center for Education Statistics (2017) reported that within three years of initial college enrollment, about 30% of undergraduates in degree programs changed majors at least once. To better understand the types of major characteristics that students want to explore, this study surveyed a random sample of 11th and 12th grade students who registered for the July 2022 ACT national test. The first theme reveals that most high school students want to explore majors in relation to schools. The second theme emphasizes that high school students want to know about the connections between majors and relevant future career considerations. The final theme highlights that students are paying attention to the characteristics that can help them be successful in majors.

The ACT® Holistic Framework® describes the knowledge and skills that students need for success during their kindergarten through postsecondary education and throughout their careers. The four areas included in the framework are core academic skills, behavioral skills, education and career navigation skills, and cross-cutting capabilities (CCCs). This paper examines parent/caregiver support and knowledge of non-cognitive skills by focusing on the CCCs. To do this, a group of parents/caregivers of students taking the ACT® test were surveyed. The survey focused on five school programs corresponding to the five CCCs: (1) critical thinking; (2) creative thinking and innovation; (3) collaborative problem-solving; (4) information and communication technology; and (5) self-directed learning.

The research summarized in this paper examines the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on student performance on the ACT[TM] test. The author compares scores during the three years preceding the pandemic (2018, 2019, and early 2020) to scores in 2021 and 2022 while accounting for changes in the tested population across years. For students tested in 2022, the author also examines differences in mode of learning across demographic groups.

The Official ACT® Self-Paced Course, Powered by Kaplan® is a test preparation solution in partnership between Kaplan and ACT. In April of 2022, the authors surveyed users of the self-paced course who took the ACT test between August 2020 and February 2022 to better understand: (1) ways the solution helped them when they took the ACT; (2) what features of the solution they considered most important; and (3) their behaviors when they used the solution. The authors invited 209,897 students to share their perspectives on the course, and 2,535 students responded to the survey. This brief highlights what students responding to selected questions from the survey learned from The Official ACT Self-Paced Course, Powered by Kaplan.

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 evidence for the Mosaic Readiness Index (MRI), a composite index derived from multiple SE skill items from the MosaicTM by ACT®: Social Emotional Learning Assessment (ACT, 2021). The MRI is the weighted average of an examinee's responses to a subset of items from the assessment that estimates the likelihood of student postsecondary success (see Allen et al., in press, for more information). Specifically, the authors examined whether the MRI predicted postsecondary enrollment while controlling for other variables related to enrollment.

To support English learners (ELs), schools across the US have been providing programs and services to ELs, such as English language development instructions and bilingual education (Umansky & Porter, 2020). However, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought significant changes to education, including the abrupt transition to online learning. Several studies have found declines in ELs' academic performance and English language proficiency performance, and, in some cases, these declines were disproportionately larger compared to other students (Lazarin, 2022). To understand why their performance declined, it is important to first find out whether the pandemic disrupted the programs and services that ELs received in school. In 2002, ACT surveyed EL students who took the ACT® test in February or April 2022 to learn about their experiences and perceptions of instruction and testing supports at school. This data byte focuses on survey responses to questions about the programs and services they received at school during the pandemic. [For the full report, "Experiences and Perceptions of English Learners Testing with Language Supports. ACT Research. Insights in Education & Work," see ED629126.]

As part of a larger research study entitled "Where Do Test Scores Fit in a Test-Optional Environment," the authors surveyed students who took the ACT on June 11, 2022, in order to better understand why high school students would take a standardized test like the ACT when they knew they were applying to test-optional institutions. Among other questions, students were asked the following open-ended question: "Given your choice to apply to a test-optional institution, what factors contributed to your decision to take the ACT?" The authors received responses from 81 students, and found six themes within these responses. In this brief the authors highlight what was learned from the ACT-tested respondents. The six themes are presented in order from the most to the least mentioned: school/state role, student benefits, test-required, test my skills, stand out, and just in case.

ACT retesting occurs when students take the ACT® test multiple times with the goal of improving their scores and postsecondary credentials. In this paper, the author examines preliminary data for the 2022 ACT-tested graduating cohort to better understand the ACT score gains that occur with retesting. The author presents the following six things to know about ACT score gains from retesting: (1) Average score gains are modest (about 1 score point); (2) Score gains increase with more time between tests; (3) Higher-achieving students tend to have larger score gains; (4) Differences in score gains across demographic groups are small but consistent with long-standing achievement gaps; (5) ACT scores tend to increase with additional retesting, but there are diminishing returns; and (6) ACT Superscore gains are substantially larger than ACT Composite score gains.

This study was done in collaboration with the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships (NCCEP) and Alliance College-Ready Public Schools (Alliance). This report, the second in the series, Examining the Efficacy of Career & College Clubs, explores how changes in the college readiness areas of social and emotional skills, knowledge of postsecondary education, and education intentions were related to growth in cumulative student grade point average (GPA) in 11th-grade students. The students in this study come from a cohort of over 900 Alliance students enrolled in Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) who have taken the Career & College Clubs (CCC) curriculum beginning in 9th grade. The results of this study demonstrate that the college readiness skills learned in the CCC curriculum increased significantly in students during their first three years of high school and predicted student grade point average (GPA). [For the first report, "Examining the Efficacy of Career & College Clubs: Initial Results and Implications for Practitioners. Research Report R2144," see ED616476.]

The research summarized in this paper examines the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on student performance on the ACT® test, focusing on students who are Native American. It compares outcomes during the three years preceding the pandemic (2018, 2019, and early 2020) to outcomes in 2021 and 2022 while accounting for changes in the tested population across years. The paper also compares college and career planning behaviors for students who are Native American relative to students from other racial and ethnic groups. The study's major findings include: (1) Native American high school students were more likely to learn online; (2) Significant ACT score declines were observed for students who are Native American; and (3) College and career planning behaviors were mostly similar for students who are Native American and students from other racial/ethnic groups.

In this report, the authors examined the relationship between social and emotional (SE) skills, school climate, educator variables, and educator burnout. Mosaic Educator, an assessment designed for teachers and school staff, was completed by a sample of educators in several regions of the country during the spring of 2022. This assessment measured educators' SE skills, perceptions of school climate, and experiences of burnout symptoms. Additionally, demographic and work variables were collected, including gender, race/ethnicity, hours worked, and job tenure. The final sample in this analysis included 329 educators (82.2% female, 17.8% male; 62.5% White, 19.2% Black/African American, 16.3% Hispanic/Latino, 2.0% Asian) who had an average tenure of 15.6 years. Prior research has demonstrated that teachers who receive professional development related to SE skills tend to have lower levels of burnout. Based on this study, cultivating staff relationships, providing a safe working environment, and offering professional development related to SE skills like stress management could all provide support toward reaching this goal.

High school students' optimism pertaining to future life outcomes, such as having a career they enjoy, owning a home, and having a better life than their parents had, might have been influenced negatively by recent events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been particularly stressful for students. Using data from a sample of current high school students, this study examined students' perspectives on their futures while considering family income and race/ethnicity, two factors known to be related to adolescents' outlooks on success in life.

This study examines the perceptions of parents and caregivers on Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), or in-school programs designed to teach social and emotional skills. The study aims to replicate the main findings from the Fordham report (Tyner, 2021) and examine how the rank-order method used in the study may have influenced the interpretation of parents'/caregivers' support for SEL. Aside from replication, the first goal was to examine if the results would differ based on the response options provided for the rank-order questions. Specifically, both Social-Emotional Learning and Social-Emotional & Academic Learning were included in the list of 12 programs as response options. The second goal was to examine what parents and caregivers knew about the program labels examined. The third goal was to provide a direct measure of support for each of the program labels. Due to the rank-order nature of the questions in the previous study, the overall level of support for each of the programs was unclear because individuals could only select up to three of the 12 programs. Finally, a fourth goal of the study was to examine potential subgroup differences based on political affiliation. [For the 2021 Fordham report "How to Sell SEL: Parents and the Politics of Social-Emotional Learning," see ED616280.]

Given recent interest and increasing popularity of social and emotional learning (SEL) in education settings, the authors surveyed students taking the ACT test and parents/caregivers of ACT test-takers on their beliefs around social and emotional (SE) skills. The study had three primary goals. First, the authors were interested in obtaining student and parent/caregiver perceived value levels of SE skills and their utility in students' academic success. Second, the authors were interested in asking, in an open-ended fashion, what skills students and parents/caregivers perceived as being most important to student success. Last, the authors were interested in whether favorability ratings or skills perceived as most important to student success differed across student and parent/caregiver subgroups. Results from this study underscore the importance of SE skills from student and parent/caregiver perspectives. Furthermore, findings show more consistency across demographic subgroups than differences, further highlighting the universal perceived importance. These findings show SE skills are perceived as valuable and important in educational contexts.

Social and emotional (SE) skills are interpersonal, self-regulatory, and task-related behaviors that are important for adaptation to and successful performance in educational and workplace settings. These skills are related to important outcomes such as academic achievement and job satisfaction. A recent report suggests the term "durable skills" can be used to describe the skills typically defined as SE skills in the K-12 space. However, little is known about how parents and caregivers perceive durable skills and which skills they believe fall in this category. To gauge the familiarity, favorability, and understanding of the label "durable skills" to describe SEL-related programs, the authors surveyed parents and caregivers of students taking the ACT® test. This Data Byte describes the methodology and findings from the study.

As the global economy transforms into a knowledge-based society with an enhanced focus on information and innovation, success will depend on the ability of global citizens to work effectively with knowledge and technology (Drucker, 1993; Sawyer, 2006; Schwab, 2017). Working effectively with knowledge and technology requires thinking critically and creatively, solving problems collaboratively, using technology effectively, and understanding our capabilities as lifelong learners. These skills are referred to as 21st-century skills or crosscutting capabilities (CCCs). The inclusion of these skills in the classroom requires the ability to continue to effectively define, teach, and measure these skills in a way that will allow us to track, cultivate, and share student proficiency. Defining and organizing the CCCs so they can be taught and measured is a critical first step that drives the design and development of learning and measurement tools. This paper provides ACT's construct definitions for these skills based on prior research, including research into how individuals use these skills in applied settings. It also provides an overview of the value and application of these skills in academic and workforce settings. [For "Beyond Academics: A Holistic Framework for Enhancing Education and Workplace Success. ACT Research Report Series. 2015 (4)," see ED558040.]

Social and emotional (SE) skills are interpersonal, self-regulatory, and task-related behaviors that are important for adaption to and successful performance in educational and workplace settings (Casillas et al., 2015). Students can improve these skills through social and emotional learning (SEL) interventions or programming designed to teach SE skill development to students in school settings (e.g., Mahoney et al., 2018). While teaching SEL shows promising results and continues to gain traction in the K-12 education space, little consensus exists on what label should be used to describe this skill set (e.g., Berg et al., 2017). A recent study with parents suggests that, although support for social and emotional learning (SEL)-related skills is relatively strong, the label "social-emotional learning" itself is unfavorable (Tyner, 2021). This conclusion was based on a rank order item which presented parents with a list of 12 undefined, SEL-related program titles and asked them to select three school programs they would most and least want their child enrolled in. To test the assumption that respondents perceived all program labels as teaching SEL, the authors conducted a survey with parents and caregivers of ACT® test takers. Results from this follow-up study demonstrate that the program label "life skills" represents a far broader range of skills than those we would typically conceptualize as SE skills. While skills such as financial management, completing taxes, and taking care of homes and automobiles are undoubtedly important, they are fundamentally different from SE skills such as persistence, empathy, and resilience. [For the 2021 study "How to Sell SEL: Parents and the Politics of Social-Emotional Learning," see ED616280.]

Social and emotional (SE) skills are interpersonal, self-regulatory, and task-related behaviors that are important for adaption to and successful performance in educational and workplace settings (Casillas et al., 2015). These skills are related to important outcomes such as academic achievement and job satisfaction (e.g., Judge et al., 2002; Mammadov, 2022; Poropat, 2009). Additionally, students can improve these skills through social and emotional learning (SEL) interventions: programming designed to teach SE skill development to students in school settings (e.g., Mahoney et al., 2018). Despite research showing the benefits of SE skills and SEL programming, recent research with parents suggests that the term "social-emotional learning" is relatively unpopular (Tyner, 2021). To examine caregiver support, the authors surveyed a group of parents and caregivers, asking them to rate their support for the 12 programs examined in the Tyner (2021) study. Parents/caregivers were informed that the survey was voluntary, and no incentives were given. The results show overall support was high for all the programs. Support ranged from 77.8% for Soft Skills to 90.7% for Life Skills, and 84.5% of parents/caregivers reported some level of support across programs. Additionally, 81.8% of parents/caregivers supported the Social-Emotional Learning program. [For the 2021 study "How to Sell SEL: Parents and the Politics of Social-Emotional Learning," see ED616280.]