Instruments
ACT Engage
ACT’s Engage assessments measure motivational, skill, social engagement, and self-regulatory constructs related to academic performance in college.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: College Readiness
Grades: 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade, Post secondary
Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ)
The Ages & Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) is a screening instrument that measures developmental performance in young children aged 1 month-5.5 years. Early childhood educators and healthcare professionals use ASQ to collect information from parents on children’s development in five domains: communication, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, problem solving, and personal-social skills.
The most recent version of ASQ as of 2022 is ASQ-3, the third edition of the instrument. ASQ-3 offers 21 parent/caregiver questionnaires that are used depending on the child's age.
Category: Student Well-Being
Sub-Category: Child Development
Grades: < 3 Years, Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten
Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (BSID)
The Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (BSID) measures the development of infants and young children (aged 16 days-42 months). Conducted by trained examiners, BSID includes several developmental play tasks to assess cognitive, language, motor, social-emotional, and adaptive behavior development. BSID’s most recent fourth version was created in 2019.
Category: Student Well-Being
Sub-Category: Child Development
Grades: < 3 Years
Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS)
The Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS) measures the environmental quality of childcare programs for children up to 30 months old. The instrument was originally developed in 1990 and is now offered in a revised version (Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale-Revised, ITERS-R). The 39 items of ITERS-R focus on the following seven domains: space and furnishings, personal care routines, listening and talking, activities, interaction, program structure, and parents and staff. ITERS-R is suitable for inclusive and culturally diverse settings.
Category: Student Well-Being
Sub-Category: Child Development
Grades: < 3 Years
Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) 3rd edition
The Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) measures college students’ learning and study strategies. It can be used for screening to identify students at risk of poor academic achievement and for diagnostics to examine strengths and weaknesses and provide focused remediation.
Now in its third edition, LASSI includes 60 items mapping onto ten scales (Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient in parentheses for every scale): Anxiety (.87), Attitude (.76), Concentration (.85), Information Processing (.81), Motivation (.77), Selecting Main Ideas (.86), Self Testing (.80), Test Strategies (.77), Time Management (.80), and Using Academic Resources (.76).
Year developed: LASSI 1st edition: 1987, LASSI 2nd edition: 2002; LASSI 3rd edition: 2016
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: College Readiness
Grades: Post secondary
MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI)
The MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) is a parent-focused instrument measuring the communicative development of children aged 8-37 months. CDI allows professionals to screen and develop prognoses for language delays by tapping into parents’ knowledge of their children’s language skills, starting from early comprehension to early vocabulary and grammar expansion.
Category: Student Well-Being
Sub-Category: Child Development
Grades: < 3 Years
Perceptions, Expectations, Emotions, and Knowledge about College (PEEK)
Perceptions, Expectations, Emotions, and Knowledge about College (PEEK) is a diagnostic instrument focused on student ideas, attitudes, beliefs, and expectations of college. PEEK’s 30 items use a 5-point rating scale (from “not at all likely” to “extremely likely”) to assess students’ academic, personal, and social expectations. Such measurement could potentially assist students in forming more precise perceptions of their college surroundings and potentially prevent disengagement and dropout from college.
Year developed: 1995.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: College Readiness
Grades: 12th Grade, Post secondary
Texas Success Initiative Assessment 2.0 (TSIA2)
The Texas Success Initiative Assessment 2.0 (TSIA2) was introduced in 2021, replacing the previous version utilized since 2013. As per the Texas State Legislature mandate, all students entering Texas public higher education institutions must undergo TSIA2 or qualify for one of its exemptions. The TSIA2 evaluates students' readiness for college-level coursework by testing them in English Language Arts and Reading (ELAR) and Mathematics.
In ELAR, TSIA2 focuses on two key areas: reading and writing. The reading portion assesses comprehension and analysis of literary, informational, and argumentative texts, including paired passages. Meanwhile, the writing portion evaluates skills in revising and editing sentences, paragraphs, and early drafts of essays.
In mathematics, TSIA2 focuses on four key areas: quantitative reasoning, algebraic reasoning, geometric and spatial reasoning, and probabilistic and statistical reasoning.
Students taking the TSIA2 begin by completing College Readiness Classification (CRC) tests in ELAR and mathematics, comprising multiple-choice questions. If students fail to meet the college readiness benchmarks on these CRC tests, they proceed with the multiple-choice diagnostic tests in ELAR and Mathematics. These diagnostic tests present an additional chance for the students to demonstrate their preparedness for college-level coursework. They also highlight students' strengths and weaknesses in specific content areas, thus facilitating their placement into suitable courses and enabling them to receive the necessary remedial support and interventions.
Year developed: 2021 (TSIA2 replaced TSIA introduced in 2013).
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: College Readiness
Grades: Post secondary