英文【ACT】大学和职业准备的多种衡量标准：证据表明了什么？-2025.pdfVIP

ACTResearch|October10,20251

MultipleMeasuresofCollegeandCareer

Readiness:WhatDoestheEvidenceSuggest?

JeffAllen

ExecutiveSummary

Thisstudyinvestigatedcriticalissuesrelatedtotheuseofdistinctassessmentsand

performancestandardsforevaluatingcollegeandcareerreadiness,withdirectrelevanceto

highschoolaccountabilitysystems.Alargesampleofhighschoolstudentswasexamined,allof

whomcompletedbothacollegereadinessassessment(theACT)andacareerreadiness

assessment(ACTWorkKeys).

TheACTtestandWorkKeysassessmentsaredesignedtomeasurerelatedbutdistinct

constructs.Bothassessmentsevaluatemath,reading,anddatainterpretationskillsandshow

alignmentwithcollegeandcareerreadinessstandards.TheACTtestassessesknowledge,

skills,andconceptstypicallytaughtinhighschoolandrelevantforcollegecoursework,whereas

theWorkKeysassessmentsfocusonfoundationalskillswithinworkplacecontexts.TheACT

emphasizesacademicskills,whileWorkKeyshighlightshowwellskillsaretransferredto

professionalenvironments.Bothassessmentsarepredictiveofcollegeoutcomessuchasfirst-

yearcollegeGPA,aswellasworkoutcomes.

Thisstudyexaminedhowmuchadditionalinformationisgainedbycombiningresultsfromthe

twotestsinhighschoolaccountabilitysystems.Studentperformancewasevaluatedaccording

toindependentlyestablishedperformancelevelsforcollegeandcareerreadiness,each

determinedthroughstandard-settingprocessestailoredtopostsecondaryeducationand

workforcerequirements,respectively.

Keyfindingsinclude:

•PerformanceontheACTtestisstronglyassociatedwithperformanceontheWorkKeys

assessments,buteachassessmentprovidessomeuniqueinformationaboutcollegeor

careerreadiness.

•Highschoolstudentsaregenerallysplitbetweenthreeg