“PIPELINE” BEST PRACTICES RESOURCES TO HELP STUDENTS SUCCEED

Colorado Higher Education Strategic Plan PIPELINE Sub-Committee Your mission… –To consider ways to INCREASE the NUMBER/DIVERSITY of students of ALL AGES pursuing Higher Education –To offer recommendations to DECREASE REMEDIATION rates and CLARIFY it’s obstacles –To identify ways which would expand students’ ACCESS to ACCELERATED COURSEWORK –To address the CONFIGURATION of HIGHER EDUCATION SERVICES to meet incoming students’ needs

Brief history of EPAS in the state –9 years of ACT College and Career Ready statewide data – = 100% ACT usage, 84% PLAN usage, 45% EXPLORE usage –Colorado HEAR utilize ACT scores along with GPA and rank –WorkKeys CareerReady Colorado Certificate Initiative through the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment

About ACT ACT is an independent, not-for-profit organization that provides more than a hundred assessment, research, information, and program management services in the broad areas of education and workforce development. Each year, we serve millions of people in elementary and secondary schools, colleges, professional associations, businesses, and government agencies, nationally and internationally. ACT has offices across the United States and throughout the world.

Annual ACT Test Takers 2009 Graduating Seniors = 1,480, Tested Juniors = 1,086,163 Over 2.5 Million Students Tested Each Year (PLAN Tested Sophomores = 1,024,164)

Barriers in College Admissions Communicate college readiness Communicate college needs & preferences Connecting with the right college/university Accessing college admission tests Limited parental or high school guidance

College and Career Readiness System 8th–9th Grade  Score Scale: 1—25 8th–9th Grade  Score Scale: 1—25 10th Grade Score Scale: 1—32 10th Grade Score Scale: 1—32 11th–12th Grade Score Scale: 1—36 11th–12th Grade Score Scale: 1—36 Longitudinal Assessments English, math, reading, science, optional Writing Test (ACT only) Career and Educational Components *Colorado administers the ACT to all public high school juniors *

College Readiness Benchmark Scores Minimum ACT test scores required for students to have a high probability of success in credit-bearing college courses Empirically derived based on actual performance of college students Established using data from 98 institutions and over 90,000 students

College Readiness Benchmark Scores TestCollege Course PLANThe ACT 8th Grade9th Grade EnglishEnglish Composition MathAlgebra ReadingSocial Sciences ScienceBiology EXPLORE The minimum score needed on an ACT subject-area test to indicate a 50% chance of obtaining a B or higher or about a 75% chance of obtaining a C or higher in the corresponding credit-bearing college courses.

State Testing Is a Great Equalizer More males More minority students More middle and lower-income students More first-generation students Result… More opportunities to increase access and participation

Comparison of Colorado ACT-Tested Juniors Before and After State Testing

The Impact of Testing in Colorado & Illinois on College Enrollment 13% of Colorado students who had not planned to attend college at the time of testing ended up enrolling in college the next year (18% in Illinois)* From 2002 to 2007, the percentage of CO and IL high school grads enrolled in college the following fall increased by 1 and 2 percentage points, respectively* *2009 Case Study – Statewide Administration of the ACT: A Key Component in Improving Student Access to College and Work

Examples of Secondary ACT Data Use Grandview High School uses EPAS data to inform instruction for individual students, inform teachers’ practices, inform curricular development for departments, inform school on overall performance for goal setting, and inform district on performance for global action. “We feel that it is important that data from all assessments be examined this way. We need to look both at the achievement of individual students and their growth and then examine what the data tells us about the rigor and alignment of curricula, about the success of our teaching methods, and the groups of students which we are having success and those groups where we need more success.” Adams 12 School District uses EPAS data to evaluate teacher performance, identify gaps in education and content-area needs, and inform course placement. Conrad Ball Middle School uses EXPLORE data to guide and educate students on course choices and career and personal exploration.

University of Colorado at Colorado Springs –Targeted messaging based on indicated student college choice –Postcard campaign with targeted messaging to “search names” based on score ranges, geographic regions and academic interest Examples of Postsecondary ACT Data Use

Colorado State University –Starting to make ACT score sender data available to advising community in hopes of reaching and advising students earlier (student data can help trigger new conversations in one-on-one advising) –Using family income data to target Pell-eligible students to inform them early about financial planning and CSU’s “Land Grant Award” Identified & contacted 2200 Colorado seniors this year 560 have applied for CSU admission Examples of Postsecondary ACT Data Use

"Without information like this from the ACT, Colorado State wouldn’t be able to let Pell-eligible families know all the support that we can offer them until they submit a FAFSA late in the process. Since our primary access-related goal on this front is to not let families with low- income self-select themselves out of even applying, utilizing this one simple piece of information and having it the minute a student sends us test scores is a profoundly impactful moment for reaching a student as much as 12 months earlier than ever before.” – Jim Rawlins, Executive Director of Admissions, Colorado State University Examples of Postsecondary ACT Data Use

Colorado Higher Education Strategic Plan PIPELINE Sub-Committee Your mission… –To consider ways to INCREASE the NUMBER/DIVERSITY of students of ALL AGES pursuing Higher Education –To offer recommendations to DECREASE REMEDIATION rates and CLARIFY it’s obstacles –To identify ways which would expand students’ ACCESS to ACCELERATED COURSEWORK –To address the CONFIGURATION of HIGHER EDUCATION SERVICES to meet incoming students’ needs