Instruments
Accuplacer
Accuplacer is College Board’s suite of online tests in reading, writing, and math used for placing college students in coursework that is appropriate for their preparation level. In 2016, Accuplacer was redesigned to align with the content assessed by the SAT exams as well as with the skills important for college readiness.
The Accuplacer suite includes:
1. The Reading test focusing on four domains: information and ideas, rhetoric, synthesis, and vocabulary;
2. The Writing test focusing on two domains: expression of ideas and standard English conventions;
3. The Math test that is aligned with state college and career readiness standards;
4. The WritePlacer and WitePlacer ESL tests evaluating students’ essay writing;
5. The Accuplacer ESL test that helps place ESL and EFL students in appropriate language courses.
All Accuplacer tests except for the WritePlacer are multiple choice.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: College Readiness
Grades: Post secondary
ACT
The ACT is a standardized college admission exam. It measures high school students’ readiness for college and career success by focusing on key content areas such as English, math, reading, and science (with the optional writing section). Multiple-choice questions are used in the English, math, reading, and science sections, and scores are converted into a composite score between 1 and 36.
ACT also provides score interpretations based on its College and Career Readiness Standards, which can provide secondary schools with information to improve instruction. Furthermore, ACT scores can be compared against College Readiness Benchmarks to determine whether students meet the minimum requirements for college success.
Year developed: 1959.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: College Readiness
Grades: 11th Grade, 12th Grade
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
Belonging Uncertainty Scale
The Belonging Uncertainty Scale is an assessment of an individual's worry that they do not fit into a certain group or setting. The 3 question items that constitute this scale are scored on a seven-point Likert scale.
Category: Student Well-Being
Sub-Category: Belonging
Grades: Post secondary
CampusReady
CampusReady is an instrument that examines schools’ strengths and weaknesses in preparing students for college. Originally known as the CollegeCareerReady School Diagnostic when it was first introduced in 2009, CampusReady utilizes David Conley’s Four Keys to College and Career Readiness, which comprise cognitive strategies, content knowledge, academic behaviors, and contextual skills and awareness. CampusReady target respondents are students in grades 6-12, teachers, counselors, and administrators.
CampusReady generates four comprehensive reports: the Participant Information Report, which gathers data on participants; the Aspirations Report, which focuses on students’ future plans; the Four Keys to College and Career Readiness Report, which evaluates college readiness across the four dimensions of David Conley’s model; and the Targeted Recommendations Report, which provides customized recommendations for the school or district that utilized CampusReady. These reports serve as valuable resources for schools and districts seeking to improve their college readiness strategies by fostering students’ knowledge, skills, and behaviors. Additionally, schools gain access to a database of effective interventions targeting college readiness.
Year developed: 2013 in its current version, 2009 as CollegeCareerReady School Diagnostic.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: College Readiness
Grades: 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade
Career and College Readiness Self-Efficacy Inventory (CCRSI)
Initially intended to assess the impact of a career planning program at a gifted and talented baccalaureate magnet high school in a Southeastern city, the College and Career Readiness Self-Efficacy Inventory (CCRSI) is a tool that measures an individual's belief in their ability to enter a career pathway and be successful in higher education settings. The CCRSI contains 14 statements that ask about one's confidence in performing behaviors that are important for college and career readiness, covering four main factors: College Knowledge, Positive Personal Characteristics, Academic Competence, and Potential to Achieve Future Goals. The scale uses a Likert scale ranging from “5: strongly agree” to “1: strongly disagree,” and the CCRSI’s overall score ranges from 14 (low) to 70 (high).
Year developed: 2012.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: College Readiness
Grades: 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade
Child Engagement Questionnaire (CEQ)
The Child Engagement Questionnaire (CEQ) measures the engagement of young children. Adults who know the child well complete the questionnaire. CEQ has 32 items on a four-point scale (1 not at all typical, 2 somewhat typical, 3 typical, 4 very typical). CEQ focuses on four domains: competence, persistence, undifferentiated behavior, and attention.
Category: Student Well-Being
Sub-Category: Belonging
Grades: Pre-Kindergarten
CIRP Freshman Survey (TFS)
Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) developed the Freshman Survey for collecting data on incoming college freshmen. The CIRP Freshman Survey focuses on the following domains: established behaviors in high school, academic preparedness, admissions decisions, expectations of college, interactions with peers and faculty, student values and goals, student demographic characteristics, and concerns about financing college.
Year developed: 1966.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: College Readiness
Grades: Post secondary
Classroom Belonging Measure
Student-reported sense of class cohesion, belonging, trust, and feeling heard.
Category: Student Well-Being
Sub-Category: Belonging
Grades: 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade, Post secondary
Cognia™ Student Engagement Survey
The Cognia™ Student Engagement Survey was designed to measure elementary, middle and high school student engagement through students’ responses to items about their learning experiences. The survey consists of items categorized into three components or domains of engagement: behavioral, cognitive and emotional (Fredricks et al., 2004). Behavioral engagement refers to a student’s efforts in the classroom (e.g., Connell & Wellborn, 1991), while cognitive engagement examines a student’s investment in learning (e.g., Fredricks et al., 2004), and emotional engagement measures a student’s emotions or feelings about the classroom and school in general (e.g., Finn & Rock, 1997; Voelkl,1997). Engagement is seen as having different levels (e.g., Crick, 2012), and, as such, each of the domains is further broken down into three categories of engagement quality: committed, compliant, and disengaged. Finally, each category consists of two distinct levels; thus, the committed category has an “invested” or “immersed” level; the compliant category has a “strategic” or “ritual” level; and the disengaged category has a “retreatism” or “rebellion” level.
This survey collects direct feedback from students regarding their level and quality of engagement in the learning process; at the same time, it assesses how much they enjoy school on a variety of practical and actionable levels.
The Cognia™ Student Engagement Survey is specifically designed to provide a useful summary of the detailed information represented from students’ collective responses and provide information about their opinions regarding their engagement in their learning environments.
Category: Student Well-Being
Sub-Category: Belonging
Grades: 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade
College Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (CASES)
The College Academic Self-Efficacy Scales (CASES) measures college students’ self-reported academic self-efficacy. CASES asks respondents to rate their confidence in various college activities such as note-taking, asking questions, writing, and class attendance. CASES has 33 items using a 5-points Likert scale ranging from 0 “very little confidence” to 4 “quite a lot of confidence”.
Year developed: 1988.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: College Readiness
Grades: Post secondary
College Readiness Assessment
The College Readiness Assessment (CRA) is a learning progression-based measure of the trajectory of students’ abilities to connect representations of mathematical functions in grades 6-12. As a formative assessment building on cognitive research in mathematics learning, the CRA aims to help students transition smoothly from middle school to college-level math coursework. In contrast to other college readiness tests, which focus on quantitatively scoring the correctness of students’ answers, the CRA uses multi-level items to measure students’ mathematical proficiency from a cognitive perspective. CRA’s six levels of progression intend to show how students’ mathematical understanding and thinking developed rather than how correctly students answered the questions. CRA’s applicability to socioculturally diverse contexts has not been studied extensively.
Year developed: 2011.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: College Readiness
Grades: 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade
College Readiness for Global Campus Survey
The College Readiness for Global Campus Survey was developed by Lee et al. (2019) to explore the college readiness of US and international undergraduate students. College readiness measures of the College Readiness for Global Campus Survey focus on two domains: academic readiness and sociocultural readiness. The academic readiness domain includes academic competencies such as critical thinking, problem-solving, computing skills, note-taking, presentation and test-taking skills, reading, writing, and mastery in subject areas. The sociocultural readiness domain includes 11 sociocultural competencies: collaboration and teamwork, commitment to learning, understanding college and career paths, responsibility, academic integrity, communication, creativity, independence, help-seeking, balancing multiple demands, and multicultural competence. The survey uses Likert-type questions ranging from 1 “none” to 5 “excellent”.
Year developed: 2019.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: College Readiness
Grades: Post secondary
College Readiness Scale (CRS)
The College Readiness Scale (CRS) was designed to measure college readiness for teenagers with ADHD. It is a self-report measure focusing on behaviors related to college readiness (Maitland & Quinn, 2011). The 43-item scale has three subscales:
- Self-determination, including self-knowledge, communication skills, and self-management (15 items).
- Daily living skills, including self-care, organization, and time management (13 items).
- Academic skills, including self-knowledge, study skills, and time management for academic tasks (15 items).
The Likert-scale items range from 0 “never/not at all” to 4 “very often/very true.” The internal reliability of the CRS is .95.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: College Readiness
Grades: 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade
College Survival and Success Scale
The College Survival and Success Scale (CSSC) measures noncognitive college readiness. First designed in 2006 and in the 2nd edition since 2011, the subscales that CSSC assesses include:
- Commitment to education.
- Self- and resource-management skills.
- Interpersonal and social skills.
- Academic success skills.
- Career planning skills.
Items are Likert-type, with response options ranging from “a lot like me” to “not like me.”
Year developed: 2006 (2nd edition since 2011).
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: College Readiness
Grades: 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade, Post secondary
Early Assessment Program (EAP) English and Math Assessments
California’s Early Assessment Program (EAP) consists of three parts: college readiness testing in 11th grade, academic preparation in 12th grade, and teacher professional development. EAP’s standardized math and English assessments measure high school juniors’ readiness for college-level work at California State University (CSU) campuses. Based on these assessments, EAP classifies students into four levels: 1) standard not met, 2) standard nearly met, 3) standard met, and 4) standard exceeded. Students taking EAP assessments receive information about their college readiness. If they are deemed unprepared for college, they can enroll in remedial courses in 12th grade and participate in the Early Start preparation program in the summer before enrolling in CSU or participating community colleges. The EAP assessments are administered as part of the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) tests in the spring semester of 11th grade.
Year developed: 2004.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: College Readiness
Grades: 11th Grade
Identification with School Questionnaire (ISQ)
The Identification with School Questionnaire includes 16 Likert-scale items assessing students' identification with or disidentification from school.
Category: Student Well-Being
Sub-Category: Belonging
Grades: 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade
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
National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health)
The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) is a school-based longitudinal study of a nationally representative sample of adolescents in grades 7-12 in the United States in 1994-95 that includes several items related to students' sense of belonging (e.g., “I feel like I am part of this school” and “I feel close to people at this school”).
Category: Student Well-Being
Sub-Category: Belonging
Grades: 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade
Online Learning Readiness Scale (OLRS)
Developed by Hung et al. (2010) and validated on a sample of Taiwanese college students, the Online Learning Readiness Scale (OLRS) explores five dimensions of readiness to study online: self-directed learning, learner control, motivation for learning, computer/Internet self-efficacy, and online communication self-efficacy.
Year developed: 2010.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: College Readiness
Grades: Post secondary
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
Postsecondary education-going access aspirations (PEG-AA) scale
The postsecondary education-going access aspirations (PEG-AA) scale proposed by Martinez et al. (2017) focuses on students’ ability to sustain hopes and dreams for the future despite real or perceived barriers. PEG-AA has 14 Likert-type questions (from 1 “not important” to 3 “very important”) on college aspirations, resilience, and expectations. In a sample of 163 students, PEG-AA’s alpha reliability coefficient was .69 (Martinez et al., 2017).
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: College Readiness
Grades: 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade
Postsecondary education-going knowledge (PEG-K) scale
The postsecondary education-going knowledge (PEG-K) scale developed by Martinez et al. (2017) focuses on the knowledge of various requirements for applying and enrolling in college. PEG-K has 46 true-false questions on three domains: access, preparedness/readiness, and affordability. In a sample of 163 students, PEG-K’s alpha reliability coefficient was .93 (Martinez et al., 2017).
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: College Readiness
Grades: 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade
Psychological Sense of School Membership Scale (PSSM)
The Psychological Sense of School Membership includes 18-items that measure adolescent students' perceived belonging or psychological membership in the school environment.
Category: Student Well-Being
Sub-Category: Belonging
Grades: 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade
Readiness and Expectations Questionnaire (REQ)
The Readiness and Expectations Questionnaire (REQ) is a researcher-designed instrument for measuring first-year postsecondary students’ expectations and preparedness for studying in college (Jansen et al., 2013; Jansen & van der Meer, 2007).
In the domain of student expectations, the REQ focuses on the expectations to be inducted by teachers, be involved in research or be told about research activities, that university will be similar to high school, and that they need time-management skills.
In the college readiness domain, the REQ measures students’ perceived readiness in information processing, collaborative learning, time management, and writing.
Year developed: 2006.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: College Readiness
Grades: Post secondary
SAT
The SAT is a college entrance exam by the College Board. The SAT has three sections: math test, reading test, and writing and language test.
Year developed: 1926.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: College Readiness
Grades: 11th Grade, 12th Grade
School Belongingness Scale (SBS)
The School Belongingness Scale (SBS) is a 10-item measure of students' sense of belonging in the school as a whole as well as their relationships with teachers and peers. The measure includes items related to "Social Exclusion" and "Social Acceptance."
Category: Student Well-Being
Sub-Category: Belonging
Sense of Social and Academic Fit
The Sense of Social Fit Scale is a 17-item measure that assesses how much a person feels they belong in a group, such as a school, club, or academic department.
Category: Student Well-Being
Sub-Category: Belonging
Grades: 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade, Post secondary
Student Athlete Pre-Screening Questionnaire (SA-PSQ)
The Student Athlete Pre-Screening Questionnaire (SA-PSQ) is a tool for evaluating the college readiness of student athletes. It is derived from the CollegeCareerReady™ School Diagnostic, which assesses four key areas of college readiness, including cognitive strategies, content knowledge, learning skills and techniques, and transition knowledge and skills. The SA-PSQ measure is predictive of college GPA and probation status, and it has also been shown to account for a distinct variation in college readiness knowledge and skills beyond typical demographic factors and academic preparation variables such as high school GPA and SAT scores (Lombardi et al., 2012).
Year developed: 2012.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: College Readiness
Grades: Post secondary
Student Engagement Instrument (SEI)
The Student Engagement Instrument (SEI) is a 35-item (secondary) or 31-items (elementary) instrument that measures various components of student engagement, including teacher-student relationships which may provide insights into students' sense of belonging at school.
Category: Student Well-Being
Sub-Category: Belonging
Grades: Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade
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
The Hemingway Measure of Adolescent Connectedness
The full 78-item Hemingway includes 15 ecological subscales measuring three domains of adolescent connectedness - connectedness to self, connectedness to others, and connectedness to society.
Category: Student Well-Being
Sub-Category: Belonging
Grades: 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade
The Scale for Teachers' Assessment of Routines Engagement (STARE)
The Scale for Teachers’ Assessment of Routines Engagement (STARE) documents teachers’ perspectives of a child’s engagement in classroom activities. Suitable for both typically developing children and children with disabilities, STARE focuses on how much time the child was engaged with adults, peers, and materials (toys, art supplies, environment in general). In addition, STARE explores how complex the engagement was. STARE is completed after a specific classroom activity and takes about 20 seconds. The STARE can be completed as frequently as necessary.
Category: Student Well-Being
Sub-Category: Belonging
Grades: < 3 Years, Pre-Kindergarten
The School Success Profile (SSP)
The SSP, available in both English and Spanish, is an online survey questionnaire with 195 multiple-choice items. These items address students’ beliefs about their social environment—neighborhoods, schools, friends, and families—and about their own physical and psychological health and school performance (individual adaptation). The survey is divided into six modules: About You (6 items), Neighborhood (26 items), School (54 items), Friends (25 items), Family (45 items), and Health and Well-Being (39 items).
Category: Student Well-Being
Sub-Category: Belonging
Grades: 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade
The Social Connectedness Scale
The Social Connectedness Scale includes 8 items and measures students' sense of connectedness, affiliation, and companionship to provide a broad picture of belongingness. The authors have an accompanying Social Assurance scale (which measures students' sense of companionship and affiliation) often administered in tandem with the Social Connectedness Scale.
Category: Student Well-Being
Sub-Category: Belonging
Grades: Post secondary
ThinkReady
ThinkReady is an instrument measuring the development of cognitive competencies that students need for college success. Previously known as College-Readiness Performance Assessment System (C-PAS), ThinkReady focuses on David Conley’s Key Cognitive Strategies for college and career readiness: problem formulation, research, interpretation, communication, and precision/accuracy. These cognitive strategies are measured via a series of performance tasks.
Year developed: 2009 as College-Readiness Performance Assessment System (C-PAS).
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: College Readiness
Grades: 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade