Should the ACT be Used to Assess Student Readiness for College

Annotated Bibliography
Appelrouth, J. I., & Zabrucky, K. M. (2017). Preparing for the SAT: A review. College and University, 92(1), 2.
In this article, Appelrouth and Zabrucky write for an audience of both educators and students. The purpose of the article is to show how preparation and personal qualities help students to score well on the SAT. It compares favorably to the study by Park and Becks (2015), which also focuses on who benefits from SAT prep. The study here shows that students have to hold themselves accountable and the teachers have to facilitate that process by working with them so that they know what aspects to focus on in order to succeed in the taking of the SAT. This work highlights the idea that the SAT can be successfully taken. It supports the work of this bibliographic topic by showing that individual differences and test preparation have to be considered by teachers if they want to be responsible in terms of assisting students to prepare for college. The question of whether the SAT is a suitable assessment, however, is not answered.
Camara, W. J., Mattern, K., Croft, M., Vispoel, S., & Nichols, P. (2019). A validity argument in support of the use of college admissions test scores for federal accountability. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 38(4), 12-26.
The authors Camara et al. (2019) work for ACT, Inc., and the Northwest Evaluation Association, which could indicate some bias in their article. The intended audience is for schools and teachers. The purpose of the article is to justify the use of college entrance exams like the ACT and the SAT by showing that these tests are accurate reflections of student achievement in school. Compared with the study by Appelrouth and Zabrucky (2017) it focuses on the usefulness of these assessments rather than on the role that prep and personal qualities plays in taking them. However, it is useful to this overall work in that it shows that the end result is indicative of student readiness in terms of moving on to higher education. In other words, these assessments act as a good barometer by which teachers and federal accountability can be assessed alongside student development.
Hyman, J. (2017). ACT for all: The effect of mandatory college entrance exams on postsecondary attainment and choice. Education Finance and Policy, 12(3), 281-311.
Professor at the Michigan Department of Education, Hymen writes on the inequality of education with respect to students who take the ACT. Poor students do not have the ability to pay for the test and thus are more likely to skip on college. The study is written for an intended audience of schools and policymakers so that they will embrace mandatory ACT testing, paid for by the schools so that students can take them even if they are poor. The goal is to get more college enrollment so as to make the future brighter for poorer students. The study is applicable to the work of this bibliography in that it shows that this is a cost-effective way of boosting college enrollment and that it is more cost-effective than traditional student loans. Whereas Camara et al. (2019) suggest that these tests are valid in supporting federal accountability, Hyman (2017) shows that they are also acceptable in terms of creating a more equal educational playing field for all students.
Ingersoll, R., Merrill, L., & May, H. (2016). Do accountability policies push teachers out?. Educational Leadership, 73(8), 44.
The authors are professors at the University of Pennsylvania. The intended audience of the article is schools and schools boards. The purpose of the article is to show that teachers should be held accountable for their ability to prepare students for assessments like the ACT and SAT but that these same teachers should also be given the freedom to prepare the students in ways that they themselves deem most beneficial. The study compares well with that by Park and Becks (2015) because it highlights the need for personalized preparation, and who best to provide this personalized approach but the teachers who will be held accountable? This study is appropriate for this bibliography because it shows that reducing turnover among teachers can be achieved by both holding them accountable and by giving them room to operate independently. Micromanaging teachers and standardizing their approach so that they feel handcuffed does not produce the kind of results that are desired.
Maruyama, G. (2012). Assessing college readiness: Should we be satisfied with ACT or other threshold scores?. Educational Researcher, 41(7), 252-261.
Maruyama (2012) is a professor at the University of Minnesota. The intended audience of this article is college entrance boards and policymakers. The question that the article focuses on is whether the current assessments like the ACT are relevant given today’s students in determining college readiness. The author posits that they are not and that assessments should be tailored towards more meaningful issues that are relevant to students. It also notes that a single assessment is not good for determining college readiness and that there should be multiple tests used instead. It compares with the study by Park and Becks (2015) because it shows that students are being unfairly treated with respect to assessments and it is time to update them. Park and Becks (2015) focus on student qualities but for a different reason—i.e., that test prep is different for various demographics. The study supports this bibliographic work by questioning the validity of the ACT assessment.
Park, J. J., & Becks, A. H. (2015). Who benefits from SAT prep?: An examination of high school context and race/ethnicity. The Review of Higher Education, 39(1), 1-23.
Park is an assistant PHD professor of Education at the University of Maryland and Becks is a PHD Director of Research at the Association of Public and Landgrant Universities. The intended audience is policymakers who might address the issue of inequality in terms of assessment test preparation. The article compares with the study by Hyman (2017) that inequality prevents poorer students from enrolling in college. Park and Becks show that race, ethnicity and socio-economic background are all factors in how well students are prepped for the SAT. Thus, the study also builds on the study by Appelrouth and Zabrucky (2017), which also focuses on personal qualities of students and how they factor into test prep. The study is helpful for this overall bibliographic in that it supports and highlights the need for more equality in terms of test prep for students seeking to go on to college.
Richardson, C. C., Gonzalez, A., Leal, L., Castillo, M. Z., & Carman, C. A. (2016). PSAT component scores as a predictor of success on AP exam performance for diverse students. Education and Urban Society, 48(4), 384-402.
The authors are professors at universities in Texas. Their intended audience is school boards and schools for setting policy on which students should be available for advanced placement courses, which then impacts who takes ACT and SAT tests. The authors argue that the PSAT is a good way to help determine which students should be in AP courses. It compares with the work b Soares (2012) in that it focuses on the predictability of testing and whether teachers and schools are using the tools that are available to them in order to give students the most support possible in shaping their futures in a positive manner. The article is relevant to this bibliography because it shows that schools should be using the PSAT with all students to see if they are ignoring anyone based on race, ethnicity or socio-economic background and preventing these students from achieving a greater level of success.
Soares, J. A. (2012). The future of college admissions: Discussion. Educational Psychologist, 47(1), 66-70.
The author is a professor in the Department of Sociology at Wake Forest. The intended audience is peers in the academic field. The purpose of the article is to discuss the problematic nature of selective admissions. The use of tests like the ACT and the SAT to determine who gets to enter college can rule out some students, especially poor ones, or those whose education has focused on areas unrelated to what these assessments measure. The author posits that this is a kind of discrimination that should be addressed. It compares with the work by Camara et al. (2019) by arguing that these assessments are not appropriate and should not be used as the sole criteria for determining who gets into college. It is relevant to this bibliography because it shows that professors and teachers in the field are not all in agreement about the relevance and merits of these assessments and that it may be time for alternative assessments to be used by colleges in determining who gains enrollment.
Soares, J. A. (2012). For Tests That Are Predictively Powerful and without Social Prejudice. Research & Practice in Assessment, 7, 5-11.
The author is a professor at Wake Forest. The intended audience is for policymakers and universities that use the ACT and SAT as a measure for determining who gains enrollment. The author posits that these tests are prejudiced against certain minorities and that other assessments should be used which are predictively powerful. The author argues that the SAT and ACT are not good predictors in determining who will do well in college. The article compares with that by Camara et al. (2019) who argue that these assessments are good predictors. Soares is a professor and Camara et al. are employed by ACT, so it is not surprising that there should be this difference of opinion. The article is relevant to this bibliography because it shows that there is another side to the story: it suggests that the ACT and SAT are being used to prevent certain minorities from gaining access to higher education and that other tests should be used to see who gains enrollment—an idea not unsupported by other researchers, including Richardson et al. (2016).
Williams, R., Smiley, E., Davis, R., & Lamb, T. (2018). The predictability of cognitive and non-cognitive factors on the retention rate among freshmen college students. The Journal of Negro Education, 87(3), 326-337.
The authors are professors at Texas universities. Their intended audience for this study is university boards who might be able to create policies that will support first-year students based on cognitive and non-cognitive factors derived from an evaluation of ACT and SAT scores among other evaluations. The study compares well with the study by Soares (2012), which also focuses on the predictive power of these assessments. The purpose of this article, however, is different in that it focuses on what colleges can do to better support first-year students whose ACT and SAT scores signify areas where they might be challenged or overwhelmed when they get to college. The study is relevant to this bibliography because it shows that students need support not just in leading up to the test but also in the years after taking the test, based on what the tests should reveal about their abilities.