Michigan’s Experience Incorporating the ACT into a High School NCLB Assessment Joseph Martineau, Director Office of Educational Assessment & Accountability Michigan Department of Education State Superintendent’s Next Generation Assessment Task Force December 2, 2008 Madison, Wisconsin

2 Why is Michigan Using the ACT? Cherry Commission report  25% of adults in MI have a bachelor’s degree or higher  Goal is to double that rate  College Entrance examination for all high school students is one component of the plan to achieve the goal

3 Why is Michigan Using the ACT? Legislation enacted establishing  The “Michigan Merit Examination,” or MME  A $4,000 scholarship for students who take the MME Three categories of eligibility  Not eligible NON-valid score in reading, writing, math, OR science  Eligible after 2 years of successful post-secondary education Maintaining at least at 2.5 GPA Valid scores in reading, writing, math, AND science  Eligible for early disbursement (to pay for tuition in advance) Proficient scores in reading, writing, math, AND science

4 Why is Michigan Using the ACT? Legislation required the following components of the MME  College entrance examination Bid process resulted in selection of ACT  Work skills examination Bid process resulted in selection of WorkKeys  Social studies assessment  Compliance with NCLB Means augmentation to round out alignment to Michigan’s high school content standards

5 What is the MME? 3-day assessment  Day 1: ACT + Writing Reading English Mathematics Science Writing prompt  Day 2: WorkKeys Reading for Information Applied Mathematics Locating Information (starting Spring 2009)  Day 3: Michigan Augmentation Mathematics Science Social Studies

6 Other States’ Statewide Use of ACT Illinois is the only other state using ACT as a part of NCLB assessment Maine is using the only state using the SAT as a part of its NCLB assessment Other states use ACT statewide, but not for NCLB assessment  Colorado  Kentucky  West Virginia  Wyoming  Others…

7 What Counts Toward What?

8 Benefits Rigor Free college entrance examination for all students Free career readiness certificate for all students Double the submissions of ACT scores to Michigan universities High quality program High quality contractor Significantly improving contractor relationships Significantly improving state-needs focus of contractor

9 Challenges and Cautions Accommodations Limited number of vendors Major changes in administration Student motivation Peer Review Cost

10 Challenges and Cautions Accommodations  Three types ACT-allowed  College-reportable ACT scores  Career readiness reportable WorkKeys scores State-allowed  No official ACT/WorkKeys score reports  Counted toward State/NCLB subject scores Non-standards  No official ACT/WorkKeys score reports  Does not count toward State/NCLB subject scores

11 Challenges and Cautions Accommodations  No ACT-allowed accommodations for ELL/LEP students at this point  No guarantee that IEP- or 504-designated accommodations will be approved by ACT  Several state-allowed accommodations for SWD not allowed by ACT  ACT indicates that studies will be carried out to evaluate whether some state-allowed accommodations will become ACT allowed

12 Challenges and Cautions Limited number of vendors  College Entrance ACT College Board/ETS  Career Readiness WorkKeys (ACT) ASVAB (Military)

13 Challenges and Cautions Limited number of vendors  Bargaining leverage is limited Expect to be frustrated at times  Getting better, however Expect high costs  Very little to no volume discount  Contract costs will inherently contribute to subsidizing substantial overhead of research-campus style operations of ACT or ETS  As competition is already severely limited… Don’t write program (e.g. ACT, SAT, WorkKeys, ASVAB) into legislation Make sure that all options are viable

14 Challenges and Cautions Major changes in administration  Old test Three-week administration window Flexibility in environment Flexibility in timing State flexibility in determining validity  New test Specific three days for initial Specific three days for makeup ACT-defined procedures, environment, timing ACT-defined validity determination

15 Challenges and Cautions Student motivation  ACT (not college bound?)  WorkKeys (college bound?)  Augmentation (is the incentive enough?) Attemptedness criteria  Make sure students at least try on all three  Valid score criterion

16 Challenges and Cautions Peer Review  Alignment, alignment, alignment Cost implications Time implications Complexity of what counts toward what Psychometric implications  3-PL versus Rasch models  Perception of value College entrance, versus Work Skills, versus Augmentation

17 Challenges and Cautions Old test  $19/student for all five subjects New test  $185/student, spring 2006 Pilot test with standard setting  $77/student, spring 2007 First operational, statewide administration  $102/student, fall 2007 Retest for eligible 12 th graders  $71/student, spring 2008 Second operational, statewide administration  $121/student, spring 2009 projection New contract

18 Contact Information Joseph Martineau, PhD Director Office of Educational Assessment & Accountability Michigan Department of Education