Using ACT Data as Part of a State Accountability System. Issues in College Readiness

ACT, Inc. 500 ACT Drive, P.O. Box 168, Iowa City, IA 52243-0168. Tel: 319-337-1270; Web site: http://www.act.org

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12

Grades (Scholastic); Elementary Secondary Education; Educational Improvement; Federal Programs; Educational Indicators; Grade 8; Grade 6; Grade 3; Grade 11; Grade 10; Accountability; Public Schools; Tests; Mathematics Instruction; Reading Instruction; Instructional Effectiveness; Student Evaluation; Evaluation Methods; Higher Education

Accountability in the nation's public schools has become a matter of considerable urgency since the 2001 amendment of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965. Under this most recent version of the ESEA, as of the 2007-08 academic year states and districts must assess the mathematics and reading proficiency of students each year in grades 3 to 8 and at least one year in grades 10 to 12, and must also assess the science proficiency of students at least one year in grades 3 to 5, at least one year in grades 6 to 9, and at least one year in grades 10 to 12. By means of these assessments, each school must demonstrate "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) toward the goal of achieving proficiency of all its students in all subjects by the year 2014, although the definitions of and standards for proficiency can vary substantially by state. The data derived from subject-area assessments and used by schools to demonstrate progress are referred to as "accountability measures". Depending on the system a school chooses to use to indicate progress, its accountability measure will typically be one of four types: status, improvement, growth, or value-added. This brief summarizes a study in which data from one or more of ACT's three college readiness assessments--EXPLORE[R] (grade 8 or 9), PLAN[R] (grade 10), and the ACT[R] test (grade 11 or 12)--were used to generate all four types of accountability measure. The study was based on a sample of 73,240 students in 1,019 cohorts at 485 high schools across the United States who graduated from high school between 2002 and 2006. At least half the students in each cohort had taken all three assessments. This brief explains and illustrates each of the four accountability measures generated from EXPLORE, PLAN, or ACT data. It also evaluates the appropriateness of each type of measure in assessing the academic effects of schools on student learning, by examining its associations with factors that are outside the school's control. (Contains 4 tables and 5 footnotes.)

ERIC

3

2010

ED510443