ACT Research & Policy

® Technical Brief ACT Aspire Scores Associated with AP Exam Success: A Preliminary Linkage

Justine Radunzel, PhD Krista Mattern, PhD Jeff Allen, PhD

In 2009, ACT examined the relationships measure students’ curriculum-related knowledge between ACT Plan test scores and scores on and the complex cognitive skills important for select (AP) exams.1 ACT future education and careers. Scores on each empirically derived ACT Plan cut scores that test ranged from 1 to 32. Like ACT Explore and corresponded to a 50% and a 75% chance of ACT Plan, ACT Aspire is designed to measure earning a 3 or higher score, and a 50% chance students’ progress toward college and career of earning a 4 or higher score, on AP exams that readiness. Additionally, ACT Aspire is a vertically were aligned in curricular content. This information scaled set of achievement tests that can be can be used to help identify students likely to used to longitudinally measure student growth benefit from academically challenging educational in English, reading, writing, mathematics, and programs such as AP. Since the completion of the across grades 3 through 10. study, many users of ACT Plan have transitioned To establish a direct link between the ACT to ACT Aspire. The purpose of the current study is Explore/ACT Plan score scale and the ACT Aspire to link the ACT Plan cut scores to the ACT Aspire score scale, a concordance study was conducted scale to derive ACT Aspire cut scores associated in 2014.2 Using the equipercentile method, the with success in AP courses. concordance analysis related scores from ACT Reasons for Connecting the Explore/ACT Plan and ACT Aspire by determining ACT Aspire Score Scale to the the ACT Explore/ACT Plan score and the Justine Radunzel is a principal research ACT Plan–AP Cut Scores corresponding ACT Aspire score with the same scientist in Statistical and Applied Research ® percentile rank. The concordance was based on specializing in postsecondary outcomes In 2014, ACT Plan and ACT Explore were research and validity evidence for the ACT® replaced by ACT Aspire. Showing how the ACT a sample of over 16,000 students who had both test. Plan cut scores correspond to the ACT Aspire ACT Explore/ACT Plan and ACT Aspire scores in Krista Mattern is a director in Statistical score scale will aid teachers, students, educators, the same content area and grade level. and Applied Research specializing in the and others who have used the ACT Plan cut validity and fairness of assessment scores The 2009 ACT Plan–AP study derived empirically as well as more general issues in higher scores to help identify students likely to benefit education such as enrollment, persistence, based cut scores relating performance on ACT from an AP curriculum. and graduation. Plan and success on select AP exams. Results

Jeff Allen is a statistician in the Research For reference, ACT Plan contained four tests— from the study showed that ACT Plan scores were division at ACT. He specializes in English, mathematics, reading, and science— good predictors of success on AP exams. The longitudinal research linking test scores to educational outcomes and student growth and was typically administered to students in current study presents the ACT Plan cut scores models. the tenth grade. These tests were designed to on the ACT Aspire scale.

Acknowledgements The authors thank Deborah Harris for ACT Technical Briefs provide reliability, validity, and other psychometric analysis on ACT education and workforce development suggesting and reviewing this piece. assessments, services, and programs. For more on ACT Aspire, visit www.discoveractaspire.org.

© 2015­­­ by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. ACT®, ACT Aspire®, ACT Explore®, and ACT Plan® are registered trademarks of ACT, Inc. 4072 ACT Research & Policy ACT Aspire Scores Associated with AP Exam Success: A Preliminary Linkage

Methodology based on tenth graders who took the ACT Results The ACT Explore/ACT Plan–ACT Aspire Plan test within standard time limits in the Table 1 provides the original ACT Plan concordance linked individual test scores academic years 2009–10 to 2013–14, we cut scores for select AP exams and the in the same content area (ACT Plan computed the average of the concorded corresponding derived ACT Aspire scores for mathematics to ACT Aspire mathematics, ACT Aspire subject-relevant test scores for tenth graders.4 ACT Plan English to ACT Aspire English, students whose ACT Plan average equaled We recommend several guidelines for using etc.). For the 2009 ACT Plan–AP study, the the ACT Plan cut scores.3 For example, for the information in table 1: relationship between the average of two AP Biology, we had derived an ACT Plan • Students with ACT Aspire scores at or ACT Plan test scores with AP success was cut score of 23 based on the average of the above the score corresponding to a 75% evaluated. Therefore, to determine the ACT mathematics and science tests. This cut score chance of earning an AP score of 3 or Aspire score that corresponds to the ACT is associated with a 50% chance of earning a higher are likely to succeed in, and should Plan cut scores, we could not rely simply on 3 or higher AP score. Therefore, for students therefore be encouraged to consider the concordance table because there are whose averaged ACT Plan mathematics taking, an AP course. numerous ACT Plan test score combinations and science test scores equaled 23, we that will arrive at the same average. To computed the average concorded ACT Aspire • Students with ACT Aspire scores between estimate the corresponding ACT Aspire mathematics and scores, and then the two scores corresponding to a 50% average score, we instead evaluated the took the average across students to arrive at chance and a 75% chance of earning an distribution of ACT Plan test scores for the the corresponding ACT Aspire score of 436. AP score of 3 or higher might succeed last five cohorts of tenth graders. Specifically, in an AP course. At a minimum, these

Table 1. ACT Plan Scores and ACT Aspire Scores Associated with AP Exam Success

Cut scores ACT Plan ACT Aspire 3 or 4 or 3 or 4 or higher higher higher higher Average test score AP exam 50% 75% 50% 50% 75% 50% English Language 21.5 24 26 434 438 440 English Literature 21.5 24 26.5 434 438 441 European History 21.5 24.5 27 434 438 441 Government and Politics: Comparative 22 25.5 26.5 435 440 441 English and Reading Government and Politics: United States 22.5 26 27 436 440 441 Psychology 19 22.5 22.5 430 436 436 U.S. History 22.5 26 26.5 436 440 441 World History 22 25 26 435 439 440 Biology 23 26 26.5 436 440 440 AB 22.5 25.5 25.5 435 439 439 Chemistry 24.5 27.5 28 438 441 442 Macroeconomics 24 27.5 27 437 441 441 Mathematics and Microeconomics 22 26 26.5 434 440 440 Science Physics B 23.5 26.5 27 436 440 441 Physics C: Electricity & Magnetism 23 27.5 26 436 441 440 Physics C: Mechanics 22.5 25.5 25.5 435 439 439 Statistics 22.5 24.5 25.5 435 438 439 Note: The derived ACT Aspire cut scores in the table are the averages of the concorded Aspire subject-relevant test scores for a sample of students with ACT Plan scores that corresponded to a reasonable chance of earning a 3 or higher (or 4 or higher) score on the specific AP exam (i.e., the ACT Plan cut scores from the 2009 ACT Plan/AP linkages).

2 ACT Research & Policy ACT Aspire Scores Associated with AP Exam Success: A Preliminary Linkage

students should be made aware of the adopted ACT Aspire already use ACT Aspire Additional research is needed to evaluate the possible AP courses available to them, as scores to gauge students’ progress toward current ACT Aspire cut scores with a study well as be encouraged to take the high college and career readiness. These analyses design that acquires both ACT Aspire scores school coursework necessary to prepare provide additional guidance for using ACT and AP exam scores to directly examine them for these AP courses. Aspire scores for identifying students who the relationships, rather than relying on • Students with ACT Aspire scores are ready for rigorous high school courses. concorded ACT Aspire scores. Additionally, given the changes that have been made to considerably below the score Clearly, there are other factors related to the AP exams over the past few years, the corresponding to a 50% chance of AP success. Multiple measures should be appropriateness of the cut scores derived earning an AP score of 3 or higher are used to identify students who are likely to be here should be reevaluated as new data not likely to succeed in an AP course. successful in school, including AP courses.5 become available. For example, the College These students might benefit most by Besides ACT Aspire scores, other measures Board redesigned the AP Physics B course taking additional high school coursework of readiness for AP coursework that might be into two new full-year courses, AP Physics 1 necessary to prepare them for AP courses. considered include high school grade point and AP Physics 2. These courses were average, high school class rank, high school offered starting in the 2014–15 school year. Summary coursework, and letters of recommendation. Other exams that were revised include U.S. This report links previously derived ACT Plan Nonacademic factors such as motivation, History, Computer Science A, and Chemistry. cut scores associated with AP success to interest in the content area, and social Additionally, the launched a the ACT Aspire score scale. Schools, states, support likely also contribute to the probable new AP exam, AP Seminar.6 districts, and other stakeholders that have success of students in AP courses.

Notes 4 Results for AP Calculus BC are not provided 5 Krista Mattern, Jeremy Burrus, Wayne Camara, 1 ACT, Using PLAN to Identify Student Readiness in table 1. The derived ACT Plan cut scores Ryan O’Connor, Mary Ann Hanson, James for Rigorous Courses in High School (Iowa were slightly lower for Calculus BC than for Gambrell, Alex Casillas, and Becky Bobek, City, IA: ACT, 2009). AP exams are graded AP Calculus AB even though Calculus BC is Broadening the Definition of College and Career on a 5-point scale: 1 (no recommendation), considered to cover more advanced topics than Readiness: A Holistic Approach, ACT Research 2 (possibly qualified), 3 (qualified), 4 (well Calculus AB. This result (including the omission Report Series 2014-5 (Iowa City, IA: ACT). qualified), and 5 (extremely well qualified). of the Calculus BC result) is consistent with 6 To learn more about changes to AP exams, visit those reported by the College Board using 2 ACT, ACT Aspire Technical Bulletin #2 (Iowa professionals.collegeboard.com/testing/ap/ PSAT/NMSQT scores to predict likely success City, IA: ACT, 2014). ACT Aspire uses a three- about/changes. on these two AP exams. As recommended by digit score scale that varies by grade. To learn the College Board, “students who have strong more about the ACT Aspire scale, visit www. perquisite experience in courses leading up discoveractaspire.org/assessments/score- to Calculus and those who perform well in scale Calculus AB may consider taking Calculus BC.” 3 This sample was comprised of nearly 6 million Xiuyuan Zhang, Priyank Patel, and Maureen tenth graders who took ACT Plan in academic Ewing, AP Potential Predicted by PSAT/NMSQT years 2009–10 to 2013–14. Scores Using Logistic Regression, Statistical Report 2014-1 (New York: College Board, 2014): 2.

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