As testing programs transition from paper to online testing, they must study mode comparability to support the exchangeability of scores from different testing modes. To that end, a series of three mode comparability studies was conducted during the 2019-2020 academic year with examinees randomly assigned to take the ACT college admissions exam on…

High school students with high-incidence disabilities and struggling writers face considerable challenges when taking writing assessments designed for college entrance. This study examined the effectiveness of a writing intervention for improving students' performance on a college entrance exam, the writing assessment for the ACT. Students were…

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…

Formally launched in September 2018, the ACT® Certified Educator™ program is a professional learning and credentialing program designed to help educators improve their teaching and tutoring strategies and skills and be fully equipped to support student learning in the core content areas of the ACT® test. In this study, participants' views of the…

Three mode comparability studies were conducted on the following Saturday national ACT test dates: October 26, 2019, December 14, 2019, and February 8, 2020. The primary goal of these studies was to evaluate whether ACT scores exhibited mode effects between paper and online testing that would necessitate statistical adjustments to the online…

In 2016, 20 states administered the ACT exam to all high school students. Of those 20 states, three use the ACT in their statewide testing program as an assessment for accountability at the high school level. States using the tests as part of an accountability system are required to submit results from an independent alignment study to the U.S.…

Strategies instruction has improved the writing of high school struggling writers in previous studies, including students with disabilities. This study examined the effectiveness of argumentative writing instruction for the ACT writing exam using the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) model with high school students with disabilities or…

Proficiency with written communication (WC) is critical for success in college and careers. As a result, institutions face a growing challenge to accurately evaluate their students' writing skills to obtain data that can support demands of accreditation, accountability, or curricular improvement. Many current standardized measures, however, lack…

High school students with high-incidence disabilities and struggling writers face considerable challenges when taking high-stakes writing assessments designed to examine their suitability for entrance to college. I examined the effectiveness of a writing intervention for improving these students' performance on a popular college entrance exam, the…

On the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessments, the attainment of performance level 4 is intended to indicate college readiness or being "on track" to college and career readiness. Students who achieve Level 4 should have a 0.75 probability of attaining at least a C in entry-level,…

This memorandum describes the SAT participation and performance for the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Class of 2015 compared with the graduating seniors in Maryland and the nation. The attachment provides the detailed results of SAT and ACT by high school and student group for graduates in 2011-2015. The mean SAT combined score for the…

Using a causal-comparative design, this quantitative study investigated whether or not the curriculum integration of academic subjects with career and technical education classes affected secondary students' academic performance as assessed by scores on standardized tests. The purposive sample was drawn from students in Trade and Industry classes…

SAT participation and performance are milestones on the path to college and career readiness. This report provides the results for SAT participation and performance in Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools (MCPS) for the class of 2014. Analysis of postsecondary outcomes for MCPS graduates indicates that graduates who took the SAT were more…

In 2005, the College Board added a required writing section to the SAT, and ACT added an optional writing test to the ACT. Before 2005, ACT and the College Board had periodically produced concordance tables to assist admission officers who wanted to understand how students of comparable ability would score on the two college entrance examinations.…

This report provides information about the performance of Arkansas' 2016 graduating seniors who took the ACT as sophomores, juniors, or seniors; and self-reported at the time of testing that they were scheduled to graduate in 2016. Beginning with the Graduating Class of 2013, all students whose scores are college reportable, both standard and…