“PIPELINE”

• BEST PRACTICES

• RESOURCES TO HELP STUDENTS SUCCEED

Colorado Higher Education Strategic PlanPIPELINE 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– 2009-2010 = 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 = 1,480,469• 2008-2009 Tested Juniors = 1,086,163

Over Over 2.5 Million Students2.5 Million Students Tested Each YearTested 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—258th–9th Grade Score Scale: 1—25

10th GradeScore Scale: 1—3210th GradeScore Scale: 1—32

11th–12th GradeScore Scale: 1—3611th–12th GradeScore Scale: 1—36

Longitudinal AssessmentsLongitudinal 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

Test College CoursePLAN The ACT

8th Grade 9th Grade

English English Composition 13 14 15 18

Math Algebra 17 18 19 22

Reading Social Sciences 15 16 17 21

Science Biology 20 20 21 24

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 PlanPIPELINE 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