Historically, a large and disproportionate share of students who register for an ACT national test date with a fee waiver have not subsequently taken the test on their registered test date. In this issue brief, this phenomenon is referred to as "test-day absenteeism." This is the second brief in a series of studies that investigate ACT's…

Understanding the concerns high school students have about college presents opportunities to address college-bound students' needs before they arrive on campus, potentially increasing enrollment and retention. In this study, we investigated the academic, campus, social, and personal concerns of college-bound high school students and how these…

Taking the ACT test is an important step in the college-going process. Over 1,500 colleges across the US educating approximately 1.5 million first-time degree-seeking undergraduates either require, recommend, or consider test scores as a criterion for admission decisions. The registration fees for taking the ACT on a national test date--at $55 for…

This study employs hierarchal linear modeling to examine whether high school grade inflation occurred between 2010 and 2021, including for students who were tested during the pandemic. The study does so while simultaneously accounting for student and school characteristics. This is the first study, to the current authors' knowledge, that makes use…

At least 55 million students ended the school year learning at home after approximately 124,000 public and private schools closed their doors due to the coronavirus pandemic. This "new normal" created uncertainty among high school students about their futures as many struggled with the pandemic's compounding effects as they also worried…