MASSP News Center

A Closer Look at College Admissions and Placement Tests

Why Achieve Studied Admissions and Placement Tests

College admissions and placement tests play a crucial role in the American education system. Over two million students each year take the ACT or SAT tests, and the results help postsecondary institutions make critical decisions about who will go to college, where they will be admitted, and the likelihood of their success in a broad range of college courses. College placement tests, meanwhile, are used by a majority of the nation’s colleges and universities to determine which courses young people are prepared to enter.

Now, as many states seek to raise high school standards to ensure that more students graduate prepared for the demands of college and the workplace, college admissions and placement tests are being called upon to serve new purposes for which they were not intentionally designed. Some states, for example, are turning to the SAT and ACT to serve as their official statewide exam, incorporating these tests into their state assessment and accountability systems. Other states are considering whether college placement tests could be given to students while still in high school to provide early feedback on their level of readiness.

While admissions and placement tests are widely used in higher education, K-12 leaders and state policymakers have a much less clear understanding of what these tests actually measure and, therefore, how well they align with their own state standards for high schools. Achieve launched this study to help inform the decisions states are making about high school assessments by providing greater insights into the world of college preparatory and placement testing.

How Achieve Conducted the Study

Achieve analyzed over 2000 test questions from college and admissions and placement exams in the U.S. to determine how these tests compare to one another and well they measure the college and work readiness benchmarks created by the American Diploma Project. These benchmarks are being used by 29 states to align high school standards, curriculum, assessments and accountability systems with the demands of college and work. The study was conducted with the full cooperation of ACT (administrator of the ACT college admissions test and the COMPASS placement test) and the College Board (administrator of the SAT and the ACCUPLACER placement test), both of whom provided Achieve with access to their admissions and placement exams. Achieve also acquired placement exams from a number of other organizations and postsecondary institutions from around the country.

What Achieve Found

Through our ADP research, Achieve has documented that college faculty across states and institutions have a fairly consistent view of the rigorous level of reading, writing and mathematics skills that incoming freshmen need in order to be successful in first-year credit bearing college courses. In mathematics, students need knowledge and skills typically learned in a four year mathematics sequence including Algebra I and II, Geometry, data analysis and statistics. They also need sophisticated mathematical reasoning and problem solving skills. In English, students need to be able to write and communicate effectively to different audiences, they need to be able to understand and analyze various types of complex informational texts, and they need to apply sophisticated analytic and reasoning skills.

Achieve’s analysis reveals that college placement and admissions tests vary considerably—and do not fully measure the knowledge and skills that are included in the ADP Benchmarks. Generally, admissions tests were found to be more demanding and more balanced in the types of questions asked than the placement tests.

Reading – College admissions tests in reading are more rigorous than placement tests, though the reading passages on placement tests more accurately reflect the types of reading material (more informational reading rather than literature) students will encounter in college.

Writing – College admissions and placement tests in writing are rigorous—more rigorous in fact than most high school tests—and they generally reflect the kind of writing students will be asked to do in college. Institution-developed placement tests are the strongest of the tests Achieve analyzed.

Mathematics — Admissions and placement tests in mathematics emphasize algebra, which is critical for preparation for credit bearing mathematics courses. However, the algebra content assessed tends to favor pre-algebra and basic algebra over the advanced algebraic concepts and skills essential for college-readiness. While placement tests are narrowly focused on algebra, admissions tests are broader, measuring a range of other important topics such as data analysis, statistics and geometry.

Implications of Finding for Policymakers

Recommendations for K-12 Leaders

1. Exercise Caution When Incorporating Admissions Tests in Statewide Testing Systems

• States that are considering incorporating these tests into their assessment and accountability system should proceed with caution. Neither the ACT nor the SAT include the full range of advanced concepts and skills reflected in the ADP benchmarks and, increasingly, in state high school standards.

• States need to augment the ACT and SAT with additional test questions or with additional performance measures to ensure stronger alignment with state standards and to assess the more advanced concepts and skills.

• Achieve strongly encourages states that are considering incorporating the ACT or SAT into their state assessment and accountability systems to conduct independent alignment studies first and then work with ACT and the College Board to supplement the assessments as needed to ensure greater coherence and alignment.

2. Use College Placement Tests for Diagnostic Purposes Only

• The majority of the college placement tests Achieve reviewed are narrowly focused on a subset of knowledge and skills and in math and reading in particular, they reflect relatively low levels of rigor. Achieve does not recommend states consider incorporating these assessments into their statewide accountability systems.

• Placement tests may have a useful role to play as diagnostic, early indicator assessments that high school students can take to determine whether they are on track to be placed into credit bearing courses in college.

3. Consider using end of course tests to tap higher level content and skills

• A growing number of states are pursuing end of course tests in high school as a strategy for measuring college readiness at the upper grades (e.g., Algebra II and 11th grade English) while also better aligning tests with the high school curriculum.

• For end of course tests to serve as an indicator of college readiness, states will need to administer tests in higher level courses, such as Algebra II and 11th grade English. Most states do not currently have tests at this level.

• Higher education has an important role in developing and/or reviewing these exams to ensure they reflect the skills needed for college success. If postsecondary institutions participate in developing these exams, they can more readily use them for placement purposes in entry-level college courses. This will send a powerful signal to students and their parents and teachers that performance in high school pays off in college.

Recommendations for Higher Education Leaders

1. Clearly define expectations for incoming students.

• Postsecondary systems and institutions must become clearer and more transparent about what it means to be college ready so that the K-12 system has something concrete to aim for.

• In each state, colleges and universities should collaborate with the K-12 system to define and publicize the standards for transition from high school to college. These standards should be pegged to the knowledge and skills high school graduates need to succeed in credit bearing non-remedial courses.

• Standards must be articulated in concrete ways, much like K-12 academic content standards are presented, so that they do not simply become represented by a score on an admissions or placement test.

2. Collaborate with K-12 on the development of more rigorous high school tests and use them for placement purposes.

• Once both sectors agree on transition standards, colleges should work with K-12 systems to develop stronger high school tests whose results could be used by colleges to place students in courses appropriate to their knowledge and skills.

• Colleges should then align their qualifying scores in order to establish a high standard of preparation that applies no matter where a student decides to go to college. The type of coordination would have two distinct benefits: it would reduce confusion about just what is required for college-level work, and it would do so in a way that elevates the standard of college readiness.

3. Support the development and use of K-16 longitudinal data systems.

• Institutions of higher education need to work with K-12 systems to develop effective data systems that follow students from high school to college. Without data on how students do once they arrive in college no one can be sure which high school programs are effective and which need improvement. Since the results of high school education bloom several years after students have graduated, it is important that states follow the progress of students as they move through their education.

• An effective longitudinal data system would include elements such as high school grades and assessment results, college course taking patterns, success in first year college courses, and persistence and completion rates.