ACT and the Use of Edmentum Test Packs in Support of ACT Preparation – Oklahoma

ACT and the Use of Edmentum Test Packs in Support of ACT Preparation – Oklahoma

ESSA Level of Research: Promising Evidence

Overall: We find medium to large associations between student performance on subject specific Edmentum Test Packs assessments and the ACT providing evidence of predictive validity. Edmentum Test Packs in Support of ACT Preparation are designed to assess and support students in preparation for the ACT. At an Oklahoma school district, Test Packs assessments were widely used by eleventh graders, and given more usage of Test Packs prescriptions in the future, it is possible to investigate the relationship between working on prescription instructional content and performance on the ACT.

Click here to view the research brief for this study.

High school student scores on state tests are an important part of school accountability under federal and state government. When schools invest in programs like Edmentum Test Packs in Support of ACT Preparation (referred to as Test Packs for brevity), they want to know that the programs work. At the request of an Oklahoma school district, we examine their students’ use of Test Packs and the relationship between Test Packs assessment and ACT scores in this study.

While a large concentration of 11th grade students in an Oklahoma school district used the assessment portion of Test Packs, a small minority of students used any of the prescription portion, an automatically generated learning path based on the assessment results designed to provide instruction in areas where students have learning gaps based on ACT standards. Medium to large associations are found between student performance on subject specific Edmentum Test Packs assessments and the ACT providing evidence of predictive validity.

Low student usage on the prescriptions prevented analysis of how using the prescription portion of Test Packs was related to student performance on the ACT.