This annotated bibliography contains summaries of research studies examining a number of College Board assessments and programs. To be included in the bibliography, each study needed to meet a number of criteria. First, articles must have been published (as a College Board research report, in an external journal, or as an ETS research report).…

Academic intensity or academic rigor of students' high school curriculum is positively related to several college outcomes including the avoidance of remediation and graduation attainment. However, research on academic rigor has been limited possibly due to the difficulty in obtaining a quantitative measure applicable across schools and districts.…

This brief studies California's introduction of the Early Assessment Program to bridge the gap between K-12 educational standards and postsecondary education requirements, similar to the Common Core State Standards movement.

This report presents research findings for Advanced Placement (AP) student success at the college level. Strong AP programs in high schools, coupled with strong AP policies at colleges, support many positive outcomes for students. Multiple research studies have confirmed that AP students who earn credit and advanced placement for the corresponding…

The College Board College Readiness Pathway is an assessment system that measures the reading, writing and mathematical knowledge and skills that students need to be on track to graduate high school college-ready. It consists of ReadiStep[TM], administered in grade eight; the PSAT/NMSQT[R], administered in grades 10-11; and the SAT[R],…

The current study examines the relationship between the SAT® College Readiness Benchmark with the outcome of graduation from college in either four or six years. The results indicate that the SAT benchmark is indeed differentiating between those students who graduate within four years and those who do not, as well as between those who graduate…

Presented at the College Board National Forum, October 2011. In this session on academic preparedness and the Common Core, presenters summarized research on academic rigor and current course taking patterns for students and discussed how the new common core state standards will impact curriculum and expectations for student coursework.

This report presents a methodology for the measurement and tracking of the college readiness level of high school students who are engaged in the college admission process. The proposed index uses the three distinct hurdles of SAT scores, high school GPA and a newly developed measure of academic rigor. Appendix A contains tables and numerical…

This study examined the English, mathematics, and natural sciences course work taken by students in their first year of college. Four-year postsecondary institutions (k = 110) provided first-year performance data for the first-time, first-year students who began college in the fall of 2006. As in previous research, composition is the most commonly…

Presented at the 11th International Conference on Education (ICE) in 2009. This presentation provides an overview of the College Board and its efforts to develop college readiness indicators. The information provided includes a conceptual overview of the indicators and the research and development components in the development and validation of…

This presentation was presented at the 2011 National Conference on Student Assessment (CCSSO). The focus of this presentation is how to validate the common core state standards (CCSS) in math and ELA and the subsequent assessments that will be developed by state consortia. The CCSS specify the skills students need to be ready for post-secondary…

Presented at the conference for USC Center for Enrollment Research, Policy and Practice (CERRP). This provides an overview of the various studies currently underway to establish the validity of noncognitive measures of success as a supplement to current cognitive measures which are used. Comparisons between what is defined as college readiness and…

The purpose of this research study was to determine benchmark scores on the SAT that predict a 65 percent probability or higher of getting a first-year college grade point average of either 2.7 or higher or 2.0 or higher, to use these benchmarks to describe the level of college readiness in the nation and in certain demographic subgroups, and to…