Patterns of Adaptive Learning Scales (PALS)
Expert NotesStrengths:Widely used in educational psychology research across grade levels. Enables analysis of both individual student and classroom-level influences.
Cautions:Primarily optimized for research purposes and less actionable for immediate, front-line use. Some subscales show varying reliability across populations and contexts.
PALS is used to investigate the relationship between a student's learning environment and their affect, motivation, and behavior. It consists of both a student scale and a teacher scale. The student scale investigates personal achievement goal orientations, perceptions of teacher goals, perceptions…Perceptions, Expectations, Emotions, and Knowledge about College (PEEK)
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions: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,…Postsecondary education-going access aspirations (PEG-AA) scale
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions: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…Postsecondary education-going knowledge (PEG-K) scale
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions: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…Readiness and Expectations Questionnaire (REQ)
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions: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…Sense of Belonging (Strayhorn)
Expert NotesStrengths:Captures multidimensional feelings of acceptance, mattering, and connection. Widely used in higher education equity and persistence research. Sensitive to institutional climate and peer/faculty relationships.
Cautions:This is not a standardized instrument with fixed psychometrics; it’s closer to a theory-driven item bank or construct operationalization.
Tags: Belonging, College readinessA family of items grounded in Strayhorn's theoretical model laid out in his 2012 book College Students' Sense of Belonging. This is a foundational conceptual model from which researchers often draw on or adapt specific item sets depending on what is being studied.Shift and Persist
Expert NotesStrengths:Brief items capturing adaptive responses to stress across academic contexts. Predictive validity for resilience-related health and academic outcomes in prior studies
Cautions:Original validation focused more on health than academic populations. May oversimplify complex, context-dependent coping processes.
Tags: College readinessThe Shift-and-Persist instrument was developed by Edith Chen to operationalize adaptive coping strategies among individuals facing adversity. The questionnaire consists of two subscales—shift (cognitive reappraisal and secondary control coping) and persist (purpose in life, optimism, and future…Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ)
Expert NotesStrengths:Comprehensive, multidimensional measure of college adjustment; strong track record of use in higher education research; applicable across a range of institutional contexts; useful for both research and applied settings
Cautions:Out of print since Oct 2024. Length may be burdensome in large survey batteries. Factor structure may vary across populations and cultural contexts.
Tags: College readinessThe Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ) is a self-report instrument designed to assess how well students adjust to college across multiple domains. It captures academic, social, personal-emotional, and institutional attachment aspects of adaptation. The SACQ is widely used in…Student Athlete Pre-Screening Questionnaire (SA-PSQ)
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions: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…Student Course Engagement Questionnaire (SCEQ)
Expert NotesStrengths:Short, easy-to-administer. Applicable across college subjects and instructional formats. Supports course improvement and teaching evaluation efforts.
Cautions:Responses may be influenced by instructor popularity or course difficulty. Recent psychometric evaluations (e.g., Masland, Bergman, & Ellis, 2022) indicate that the tool's original four-factor structure (Skills, Participation, Emotional, and Performance Engagement) does not always hold up consistently across different institutional types or student demographics. The SCEQ may be more useful as a practical course-feedback tool than as a highly precise multidimensional engagement measure.
The Student Course Engagement Questionnaire (SCEQ) is a student self-report questionnaire developed in 2005 by Handelsman and colleagues to measure how actively students engage in a specific course. Rather than focusing on general attitudes about school, the SCEQ captures what students actually do…Student Self-Expectancies and Task Value
Expert NotesStrengths:Grounded in well-established expectancy-value motivation theory. Helps explain why students choose or avoid challenging tasks.
Cautions:Often adapted differently across studies and contexts.
Tags: College readinessStudent Self-Expectancies and Task Value scale were created by Eccles and colleagues (2005) and later applied in higher education settings by Davis and colleagues (2019).Survey of Entering Student Engagement (SENSE)
Expert NotesStrengths:Updated survey includes basic needs and access to support services.
Cautions:Less applicable for four-year universities or advanced students.
The Survey of Entering Student Engagement (SENSE) is a student survey designed to help community and technical colleges understand students’ experiences during the earliest weeks of college. Developed by the Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE) at The University of Texas at…Texas Success Initiative Assessment 2.0 (TSIA2)
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions: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…The Social Connectedness Scale-Revised
Expert NotesStrengths:Sensitive to differences in perceived social integration and isolation.
Cautions:Limited ability to capture structural or environmental influences on connection. May overlap with related constructs like loneliness and belongingness.
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…ThinkReady
Expert NotesStrengths:Cautions:ThinkReady (formerly C-PAS, CPAS) is an innovative assessment designed to track the development of Key Cognitive Strategies (KCS), which are the thinking skills necessary for college and career readiness and success. Through extensive research over more than a decade, Dr. David T. Conley, founder…