Since 1959, ACT has collected and reported data on students’ academic readiness for college—both nationally and state specific. Preparing for college and career is a process that occurs throughout elementary and secondary education. Measuring academic performance over time provides meaningful and compelling information about the college readiness of students. ACT research also shows that certain nonacademic factors can play a role in student college success. Learn what to look for beyond GPA and test scores to predict the greatest likelihood of college success.

1. ACT — Cognitive and Non-
Cognitive Factors that Determine
Student College and Career
Readiness
April Hansen, Postsecondary Director
George Schlott, Senior Consultant for Program Solutions
ACT, Inc. – Midwest Region-Lincolnshire IL
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. A Question for All
What is College and Career
Readiness?
Ensuring that all students, graduating from high
school, have acquired the skills in English,
mathematics, reading, and science that they need to
be ready for entry-level college courses without
remediation

3. ACT College & Career Readiness System
Measuring Student Progress Toward Improving Planning for
College and Career Readiness Course Rigor School
Improvement
College & Career Readiness Information System
EXPLORE PLAN The ACT WorkKeys ENGAGE QualityCore CoreWork
Diagnostics
Online service to
8th & 9th 10th grade Job skill Middle and Research-
grade curriculum- 11 & 12
th th
High School driven
diagnose and
grade assessments improve content
curriculum- based assessment solutions for and practice areas
and portable
based educational curriculum- that measures strengthening
credentials
educational and career based factors of curriculum &
and career planning
necessary academic instruction
measureme for career
planning program nt for success Core Practice
program pathways Audit
learning
outcomes Online service to
ACT Core diagnose and
ACT College Readiness Benchmarks improve content
Course
and practice areas
ACT College Readiness Standards Standards
Research

4. ACT College Readiness Benchmarks
Through collaborative research with postsecondary institutions nationwide, ACT has
established the following college readiness benchmarks*:
Test College Course EXPLORE 8 EXPLORE 9 PLAN 10 ACT COMPASS
Test College Course ACT
English English Composition 13 14 15 18 69
English English Composition 18
Math College Algebra 17 18 19 22 65
Math College Algebra 22
Reading Social Science 15 16 17 21 88
Reading Social Science 21
Science Biology
Science 20
Biology 20 21 24 24 NA
* Minimum score needed on an ACT subject-area test to indicate a 50% chance of obtaining a B or higher or a 75% chance of obtaining a C
or higher in the corresponding first-year credit-bearing college course.

5. Value of College Readiness
Students who are college/career ready when they leave
high school have a significantly higher likelihood of:
– Enrolling in a postsecondary program,
– Enrolling in credit bearing courses without the need for
remediation,
– Succeeding in entry level postsecondary course work,
– Persisting in their postsecondary education,
– Completing a postsecondary degree or training program,
and
– Entering the job market with significantly higher lifetime
earning potential.
Regardless of ethnicity and SES

6. Leaky Educational Pipeline
Leaky Educational Pipeline
• Many students are not prepared to meet the hurdles they
face throughout the academic pipeline, and they don’t persist
and succeed.
Enter 9th HS Enter College Graduate
grade Graduate College (Bachelor’s)
~100% 96.9% 74.9% 52.5% 29.0%
NCES 2010
• What can we do to improve student success and
persistence?
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 6

7. Leaky Educational Pipeline
Pop Quiz
What’s the number of American high school
students who drop out of school, every day,
bored, frustrated, or so far behind that they’ve
given up?
6,000

8. Attrition Costs Money
Two-year schools -- 54 %
Four-year private colleges -- 73%
Four-year public -- 71% *
*Wes Habley, ACT, January 2009
By 2020:
Cost of the average private--$60-70,000 per year
Cost of the average public--$17,500-27,500 per year
In 2008:
Out of approx. 1.8 million first year college students, 450,000 did not return to
the college or university where they began their college career.* That’s 25%.
*Bryan Matthews, Retention Matters, Inside Higher Ed, Nov. 2, 2009

9. Do the Math!
If you have an incoming class of 1000, and lose even 10% of
the class (100 students), that’s
100 x $30,000 = $3 million
$3 million x 4 years = $12 million
Retaining students allows you to maintain revenue streams
while keeping tuition increases down.
It’s the low hanging fruit.

10. What if you had an assessment that would:
 evaluate students’ personal, behavioral, and academic
skills critical to high school and college achievement
 determine their levels of academic risk
 apply specific interventions to help them persist in their
studies and achieve academic success
 identify student strengths and areas for improvement in
student motivation, social engagement, and self-regulation
predict college retention for each incoming freshman

11. Research is the Foundation
• The strongest predictors of college persistence and degree
completion are: prior academic achievement and course
selection (rigorous high school classes).
• Prior academic achievement and cognitive ability surpass
all other factors in their influence on student performance.
• Non-academic factors can influence academic
performance, retention and persistence, but cannot
substitute for it.

13. You Do!
Grades 6-9
Grades 10-12
College
Teacher

14. The Challenges
• Create a comprehensive assessment system that
predicts success in education and work
• Tailor assessments for critical transition points
and context
• Measure characteristics amenable to change
• Help educators connect students’ needs to
interventions
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 14

15. ACT’s Academic Achievement, Behavior &
Career Planning Solutions
Grades
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 College Work
Achievement EXPLORE ® PLAN ® ACT ® COMPASS ® WorkKeys ®
Behavior ENGAGE and ENGAGE Teacher Edition ENGAGE Talent
Career ACT Interest Inventory & Map of College Majors Fit
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 15

16. ACT’s Academic Behavior Assessments
• Students’ personal characteristics and psychosocial
development influence their ability to stay in school
and be successful
• ACT research shows that psychosocial/behavioral
development can be structured into 3 broad domains:
– Motivation
– Social Engagement
– Self-Regulation
• ACT’s academic behavior assessments measure these
domains
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 16

17. ACT’s Academic Behavior Assessments
Student Grade Levels
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 College
Student reported ENGAGE ENGAGE ENGAGE
(surveys) Grades 6-9 Grades 10-12 College
Teacher reported ENGAGE Teacher Ed. ENGAGE Teacher
(teacher ratings) Grades 6-9 Ed. Grades 10-12
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 17

18. ACT’s Academic Behavior Assessments
• Surveys (Student reported)
– ENGAGE Grades 6-9 (typically in 6th & 9th grade)
– ENGAGE Grades 10-12 (typically in 11th grade)
– ENGAGE College (typically early in 1st semester)
• Behavioral Measures (Teacher reported) COMING SOON!
– ENGAGE Teacher Edition for Grades 6-9 and 10-12
(completed by teachers 2-3x per year for each student)
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 18

19. ACT’s Academic Behavior Assessments
ENGAGE Grades 10-12
Domain ENGAGE Grades 6-9
& College
Motivation  Academic Discipline  Academic Discipline
(Getting work done)  Commitment to School  Commitment to College
 Optimism  Goal Striving
 General Determination
 Study Skills
 Communication Skills
Social Engagement  Family Attitude toward Education  Social Activity
(Getting along)  Family Involvement  Social Connection
 Relationships w/ School Personnel
 School Safety Climate
Self-Regulation  Managing Feelings  Academic Self-Confidence
(Keeping your cool)  Thinking Before Acting  Steadiness
 Orderly Conduct
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 19

22. ENGAGE: Grades 6-9
• Measures students’ perceptions of themselves,
their families’ commitment to education, school-
related factors, and important behavioral data
• Developed to predict academic success and
high school graduation
• Low stakes, self-report instrument, 4th-grade
reading level
• 10 scales
• Online administration
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 22

23. ENGAGE 10-12 & College
• Measures students’ psychosocial attributes, determines
level of risk, and helps identify interventions to
promote successful transition to postsecondary studies
• Developed to predict academic success and retention
in the first year of college
• Low stakes, self-report instrument, 6th-grade reading
level
• 10 scales
• Online administration
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 23

24. ENGAGE: Reports
• Academic Success and Graduation/Retention Indices
• Student profiles can be used to:
– Identify relative strengths and needs
– Inform student advising
– Match students’ needs to interventions
• Aggregate reports
• Roster reports
• All reports available online 24/7
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 24

25. ENGAGE: Sample Advisor Report
Profile Success Indices
of scores (only on Advisor
Report)
Interpretive
feedback, sorted
from strengths to
needs
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 25

26. ENGAGE: Sample Profile Report
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 26

27. ENGAGE: Sample Intepretative Reports
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 27

28. ENGAGE: School/Institution Aggregate Report
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 28

29. ENGAGE: Roster Report
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 29

30. Why ENGAGE?
• Grounded in research
– Developed based on meta-analysis of predictors of
academic performance and persistence (Robbins et al., 2004)
– Validated across many studies (e.g., Allen et al., 2010; Casillas
et al., in press; Robbins et al., 2006, 2008)
• Helps educators to consider the whole student
– Provides profile of relative strengths and needs
• Practical and flexible
– Administer online at any time
– Reports available online 24/7
– Identify areas of challenge for students
– Create a crosswalk of ENGAGE scales to existing services
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 30

31. Percentage of students accurately identified
as having a 9th-grade GPA <2.0
Selection Method Hit Rate
Random 24%
EXPLORE Composite only 69%
ENGAGE Grades 6-9 only 80%
EXPLORE & ENGAGE 83%
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 31

32. Average Early High School GPA, by EXPLORE
and ENGAGE Grades 6-9 Scores
Average Early High School GPA, by EXPLORE and Average ENGAGE Grades 6-9 Scores
Low ENGAGE Moderate ENGAGE High ENGAGE
4.0
3.5 3.63
3.34
3.0 3.13
Average Early HS GPA
2.89
2.5 2.62
2.41
2.0
1.96 1.99
1.77
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
Bottom 25% Middle 50% Top 25%
EXPLORE Composite Score
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 32

33. Percentages of Students Accurately Identified
as Being at High Risk for Dropping Out
Selection Method Hit Rate
Random 17%
EXPLORE Composite only 37%
ENGAGE Grades 6-9 Grad. Index only 42%
EXPLORE & ENGAGE Grad. Index 52%
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 33

34. Persistence Rates, by EXPLORE and ENGAGE
Grades 6-9 Graduation Index Levels
Low Graduation Index Moderate Graduation Index High Graduation Index
100
98
96 96
92
89
80
72
69
Persistence Rate
60 62
48
40
20
0
Bottom 25% Middle 50% Top 25%
EXPLORE Composite Score
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 34

35. Use of ENGAGE College to Identify
Students Academically at Risk
Accuracy of Identification
Selection Method Drop Out Academic Difficulty
Random 10% 20%
ENGAGE
24% 46%
Success Indices
Note. Students scoring in the bottom 5% of each of these populations were flagged.
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 35

36. ENGAGE: Teacher
• Designed to assess and monitor students’ development
• Students are rated by teachers who know them well
• Requires each student to be rated by at least one
teacher
• Used to 2-3 times per year
• Scales are “anchored” with behavioral statements to
enhance accuracy and reliability
• Same dimensions for Grades 6-9 and 10-12, but
rating scales are made up of different items.
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 36

37. ENGAGE: Teacher
Domain Scales
Motivation  Initiative
(Getting work done)  Planning & Organizing
 Sustained Effort
 Performance
Social Engagement  Communication
(Getting along)  Working with Others
Self-Regulation  Managing Feelings
(Keeping your cool)  Orderly Conduct
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 37

38. Combining Assessment
and Interventions
to Promote Student Success
ENGAGE
Support
Resources Reduced
& Risk
ENGAGE Interventions
Teacher
Edition
Continued
Evaluation
& Feedback
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 38

39. Example Crosswalk between
Interventions and Areas of Need
Interventions
Goal Setting Group Work & Self- How to
Areas of Cross-Age Community
& Time Mentoring Communication Confidence Follow
Need Tutoring Service
Management Skills Workshop Rules
Motivation x x x x
Social
Engagement x x x x
Self-
x x x
Regulation
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 39

40. Behavioral Education Solutions
• Grade 6-12 curriculum COMING SOON!
– Units designed to help students build behavioral skills
– Based on carefully developed Behavioral Learning
Objectives
– Fully developed and structured lesson plans and activities
• ENGAGE Tool Shop (Postsecondary)
– Several tools available for each ENGAGE scales to address
students’ needs
– Can be completed by students on their own or as part of
FYE courses or other group settings
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 40
40

41. ENGAGE Tool Shop (College)
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 41

42. Intervention Research
• University of North Texas
– Large university (36,000 students)
– Administers ENGAGE to all incoming 1st-year students
– Identify at-risk students and follow up with immediate
individualized intervention
• Northern Arizona University
– 4-year public institution serving 13,000 students
– Use ENGAGE to guide intrusive interventions with those
students who need the most help
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 42

43. UNT Face-to-Face Meeting
• Advisor or student affairs staff meet with
student during first 5-6 weeks of semester
• Present ENGAGE results by focusing first on
strengths, then needs
• Focus resources to aid student in:
– building on one strength and addressing one area
for improvement
– using crosswalk of ENGAGE to campus resources
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 43

44. Sample Crosswalk of Resources
SRI Scale Definition Resources
Academic Discipline Effort put into school work and • Learning Center
the degree to which students see • Office of Exploring Majors
themselves as hardworking and • UNT Math Tutor Lab
conscientious.
• UNT Student Writing Lab
Social Connection Feelings of connection and • Off-Campus Student Services
involvement with school and • Transfer Center
community. • Residence Life
• Recreation Center
Academic Self-Confidence Belief in ability to perform well • Learning Center
in school. • Counseling and Testing
• Office of Exploring Majors
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 44

45. www.act.org/engage/index.html
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 45

46. www.act.org/engage/index.html
For each version of ENGAGE, website contains:
– Features and Benefits
– Testing Timeline
– Program Materials
– Research
– Results and Reports
© 2012 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 46