Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education Enrollment Management Conference

ACT Executive UpdateEverything you have always wanted to know about

ACT’s Assessments and Enrollment Management Services!

Sue Wheeler, P-16 Programs and ServicesDon Pitchford, Consultant for Assessment Services

• When was the ACT first administered? • In how many states is the ACT administered?• In how many states do more than 50 percent of

high school graduates take the ACT? • What are the top five states in numbers of ACT-

tested high school graduates? • At what U.S. colleges and universities are ACT

scores accepted? • What is the highest possible ACT score? • Can students with disabilities take the ACT? • Can students take the ACT outside the 50 United

States?• How many fees waivers does ACT offer to

students? 

The ACT test…

Oklahoma Facts 2010• 28,343 graduates took the ACT.

• 73 percent of graduates took the ACT.

• 41,477 10th-grade students took PLAN®.

• 42,640 8th-grade students took EXPLORE®.

• There is no change in the 2010 Oklahoma ACT Composite score compared to the class of 2009—20.7

• The Oklahoma graduating class of 2010 participated in the ACT at record numbers, increasing participation by 1289 students over last year.

• In 2010, 153,829 score reports were sent to Oklahoma postsecondary institutions.

• Student achievement and success is greater for students who take all ACT College and Career Readiness Assessments — EXPLORE (8th/9th), PLAN (the pre-ACT in 10th), and the ACT (11th/12th).

• Oklahoma students who tested only once with the ACT are more likely to have waited until their senior year to test.

• 163,000 COMPASS® units were purchased by Oklahoma postsecondary institutions during a 12-month period ending August 31, 2010. Oklahoma postsecondary institutions use COMPASS for student course placement and diagnostic testing.

Source: WICHE: Knocking at the College Door 2/2008 - Projections of H.S. Graduates by State

ACT-Tested Graduates by State 2010

> 100,000

70,000–100,000

40,000–70,000

143,734

123,918

92,615

72,326

93,884

88,103

50,420

50,225

47,240

44,863

46,990 44,311

20,000–40,000

10,000–20,000

< 10,000

35,590

34,211

33,238 25,641

31,728

27,131

23,687

22,950

22,598

22,545

10,081 10,589

11,951

11,602 11,951

16,573 15,884

19,439

16,89611,603

13,054

16,521

14,714

12,469

10,740

1,2518,159

986

6,959

6,113

4,361

6,286

6,295

2,047

3,182

1,527 2,203

2,548

1,503

More than 350 fields of data provide a complete student profile:

Student Data in ACT Record

– Personal/demographic data– Admissions/recruitment data– ACT Scores, norms, and prediction research– High school courses and grades– Educational plans, interests, and needs– Activities and accomplishments

ACT Academic Data

• ACT Scores, Norms and Percentiles (42 items)

• Prediction Research (30 items)

• HS Grades and Courses (80 items)

Student Profile Data• Admission/Enrollment Information

(10 items)• Factors Influencing College Choice

(12 items)• Educational Plans, Interests, & Needs

(8 items)• Special Educational Needs, Interests,

and Goals (21 items)• Interest Inventory (22 items)

Student Profile Data (cont.)• High School Information (20 items)• Financial Aid (4 items)• Out-of-Class Accomplishments

(62 items)• High School Activities/ College Extracurricular

Plans (32 items)• Evaluation of HS Experience

(11 items)• Background (6 items)

College Success Data

• ACT Scores, Norms, Percentiles(42 items)

• Prediction Research (30 items)• HS Grades and Courses (80 items)• Educational Plans, Interests, & Needs

(8 items)• Special Educational Needs, Interests,

and Goals (21 items)• Interest Inventory (22 items)• College Extracurricular Plans (32 items)

The College Selection Process• Students often don’t choose to enroll at a

specific college until relatively late in the process

• BUT fairly early in the process they make their decisions on key questions

College Selection Decision Questions• Do I want to enroll public or private?• Two-year or four-year?• Do I want a large or small institution?• Will I be living on campus?• Am I willing to go out-of-state?• Am I willing to travel far from home (more than

150 miles)?• How selective an institution do I want?

The “Box”• Students put a “box” around their decision in

terms of what is preferable or likely

• AND students are likely to choose a school that fits within their pre-defined box

• In other words, their decisions are much more purposeful and predictable than many educators assume

To assist with student characteristics and choices:

ACT offers dynamic and information-rich tools to help you meet your enrollment management goals!

Enrollment Management Services

• Class Profile service

• Enrollment Information Service

• Educational Opportunity Services

• ACT Information Manager

• Predictive Modeling

EMS: What We Do and Why

• ACT collects an enormous amount of information from students and from colleges

• Our job in Enrollment Management Services (EMS) is to translate that data into forms that can help campuses improve student recruitment and student retention

The ACT College Report provides the most complete and helpful information available about your freshmen:

– Comprehensive picture of students’ needs, interests, backgrounds, and abilities

– Is available before first advising conference– Is easy to use and interpret– Helps the advisor match student needs with

institutional resources

What Happens on Campuses…• All the activities we say the ACT record can be

used for presume that all the data gets in the hands of the right people, in the right format, at the right time!

• Because ACT data is largely unavailable to end-users, there is a big disconnect between how we say the data should be used and how it is actually used.

Freshman Class Profile Service

The Class Profile Service provides:• a comprehensive summary of a college's ACT-

tested entering freshman class by showing parallel descriptions for students who sent scores, who enrolled, and who sent scores but did not enroll.

• In addition to making comparisons with national enrolled freshmen, the information can be used for enrollment planning and trend analyses.

• And, this report is provided by ACT at no charge

Class Profile• Executive Summary—highlights the academic

characteristics of your enrolled freshmen. • College Attractions—highlights your

institution's position in the students' order of preference (1st choice, 2nd choice, etc.) at the time of testing.

• Academic Abilities—provides distributions of the ACT scale scores and high

• school grades. • Goals and Aspirations—provides summaries

of students' educational major choices and their degree aspirations at the time of testing.

Continued:• Plans and Special Needs—provides student-level

admission/enrollment information, needs for special programs or assistance, and financial aid considerations.

• High School Information—provides information about the students' high school core curriculum preparation, academic background, and a list of the major feeder high schools.

• Competing Institutions—provides the names of those institutions to which score reports were sent as well as to your institution.

• Year-to-Year Trends—provides five-year trend data on such areas as ACT scores, high school grades, family income, and special needs and interests.

The Class Profile Service can answer:• Has the popularity of selected academic majors

changed in the last five years? • What has been the trend in average ACT scores

in the last five years? • What proportion of ACT-tested students who

designated our institution as their first choice actually enrolled?

• How successful have we been in enrolling minority students?

ACT’s Enrollment Information Services (EIS):

• EIS is a comprehensive market research tool that assists with enrollment planning by pinpointing the schools and geomarkets where your best prospects can be found

• Contains the data on all ACT tested juniors and seniors that have tested on one of the six national dates

• Easy to install CD format

Strategic Enrollment Planning with EIS EIS is a tool for more than the Admissions Office! Use EIS campuswide to:

• Inform discussions with faculty & academic administrators about market realities

• Provide senior management with decision-making data to drive new enrollment initiatives

• Provide admissions counselors and other enrollment staff with marketplace information to guide territory management

Enrollment Funnel through EIS

1.6 Million ACT-Tested Students

Campus Scores Received(Visibility)

Campus Enrolled(Yield)

Breakout by:AbilityGeographyRace/EthnicityFamily IncomeIntended majorEnrollment Preferences, etc.

Market OverlapCompetitor Analysis

Best Uses for EIS:• Manage primary markets• Identify underperforming high schools• Identify new markets• Train new admissions counselors• Help senior administrators set realistic

goals• Develop marketing messages tied to

student interests and characteristics• Identify competing institutions for specific

markets

Use EIS to compare your institution's image and appeal within student populations and among competing institutions

• Which institutions are receiving score reports from students in primary market segments?

• What is your score report overlap with these institutions? • What is the academic quality and educational major interest

for these students? • How does the collegiate competition vary across the

educational programs you offer?

Market Segment/ Territory Management

• underperforming school/region analysis– Low awareness, low conversion– High awareness, low conversion

• counselor training• territory management• managing competition and market overlap• name purchases• identifying new markets• strategic and realistic goal-setting• benchmarking success of initiatives

Publication/Website Development • Use EIS to:

– Identify target group characteristics such as income and intended major (Overview Report)

– Identify competition and competitor markets• Use Class Profile Report to:

– Identify strengths to promote; weaknesses to counter– Develop lead recruiting messages– Focus websites and print materials on student interests

and needs (departments, services, and activities to feature)

Create Customized Queries on Demand• Key characteristics

– Gender

– Educ. major

– Race/Ethnicity

– Family income

– Religious pref.

– College selection variables

• Geographic variables

– States

– ACT EIS segments

– High school districts

– High schools

– Distance from campus

• Academic performance

– GPA

– Class rank

– ACT scores

Identifying and Building Awareness in New Markets• Identify areas (county, EIS segment, etc.) with a

concentration of students with desired characteristics and/or characteristics that yield enrolled students

• Purchase targeted names using EOS, and send awareness-building messages

• Do competition analysis to determine if students in target areas are mobile and attend schools like yours

• Identify selected high schools to visit• Use EIS data as a benchmark to identify success of

initiatives

How to get prospective student names• ACT

– ACT score-sender– ACT EOS– PLAN EOS

• On top of hundreds of other sources

Educational Opportunity Service (EOS)

• Use EIS data to effectively inform EOS purchases.

• EOS is a great tool to help you build your inquiry/prospect

pool by purchasing qualified cohorts of targeted students

that meet your desired institutional student profile.

EOS is simple! “It provides you with a method to get the

right message, to the right students at the right time”—some famous enrollment manager .

ACT EOS and PLAN EOS• ACT EOS

– Juniors and seniors– More than 900,000 names per year

• PLAN EOS– Sophomores– More than 670,000 names per year

• Students with e-mail address (PLAN 65%)

(ACT 74%)

More than 350 fields of data provide a complete student profile:

Student Data in ACT Record

– Personal/demographic data– Admissions/recruitment data– ACT Scores, norms, and prediction research– High school courses and grades– Educational plans, interests, and needs– Activities and accomplishments

Challenges of Electronic Data• Last year, more than 1,000 colleges received only

electronic reporting of ACT records, totaling more than 4,600,000 scores sent

• Of the top 300 campuses (> 5,000 score reports) 87% are electronic only

• For the great majority of these campuses, only the ACT composite score is loaded into student information systems.

• After 25-plus years of electronic reporting, there is a whole generation of enrollment managers who have never seen a paper report…

• And, most have no idea that ACT collects significant information related to student’s academic ability and career interests.

Key Questions Regarding SIS Vendors

• What data elements can be imported?

• What data elements can be extracted via forms and reports?

• Can data move to/and from my CRM?

What Options Do Campuses Have for Viewing and Sharing ACT Data?

• Market for enterprise-level student information systems dominated by few companies:– SCT Banner– PeopleSoft– DataTel– EMAS– Hobsons EMT– Jenzabar

So… ACT Developed AIM…

• Remove barriers of access to data• Ensure data is used as intended • Ensure sharing of data in admissions, academic

departments, student services, and extracurricular areas

AIM turns ACT data into information that leads to action!

ACT assessment dataTwo primary types of data1. Cognitive data- scores, sub scores, predictive

data2. Noncognitive data- the student profile section

(SPS) The ACT Information Manager (AIM) software can be used to house and manipulate allstudent data collected from the ACT assessment

• ACT’s Predictive Modeling Service offers accurate college enrollment predictions at a fraction of the cost of other services. Because it is based on student-level information, ACT’s predictive modeling data are more accurate and less expensive than predictions based primarily on geodemographic data.

Four Predictive Models:

• An inquiry pool model that allows an institution's entire inquiry pool to be scored

• A model for ACT-tested score senders to the institution

• A model for names purchased through the ACT Educational Opportunity Service (EOS)

• A model that predicts first- to second-year retention

Benefits of Predictive Modeling:• Save money on mailings • Focus recruitment travel • Segment yield strategies • Segment communications • Prioritize telecounseling • Forecast enrollments • Benchmark recruitment strategies

Student Readiness Inventory (SRI) provides noncognitive information about your students and productive interventions to help them succeed.

Six-year graduation rates average 57% at 4-year institutions (range = 36 to 75%, Horn & Nevill, 2006) and 34% at 2-year institutions (range not available, Swail, 2004)

Many new students are ill-prepared to meet the hurdles they face upon entry into college.

What can institutions do to help students succeed?

Why the SRI?

Prediction of SuccessHistorically, prediction of first-year college success has

centered on standardized achievement and high school GPA

There is growing evidence that academic success behaviors

should be modeled with additional relevant attributes,

including psychosocial factors (Le et al., 2005; Peterson et

al., 2006)

Introduction to SRI (cont.)

Psychosocial and study skill factors can be organized into 3 broad domains:

Motivation & Skills– Personal characteristics that help students to succeed

academically by focusing and maintaining energies on goal-directed activities.

Social engagement – Interpersonal factors that influence students’ successful

integration into their environment.

Self-regulation – Cognitive and affective processes used to monitor, regulate,

and control behavior related to learning.

SRI Scales

Domain SRI Scale

Motivation & Skills Academic Discipline Commitment to College General Determination Goal Striving Study Skills Communication Skills

Social Engagement Social Activity Social Connection

Self-Regulation Academic Self-Confidence Steadiness

Measuring Risk

• The SRI also includes predictive indices (based on a combination of SRI scales + achievement information):– Academic Success Index: likelihood of GPA 2.0 or

higher– Retention Index: likelihood of returning second year

• All SRI scores (scales and indices) are presented as percentile scores (range 1 to 99)

LOW ACT LOW MOTIVATION HIGH MOTIVATION Scale Percentile Percentile

Academic Discipline

General Determination

Goal Striving

Commitment to College

Study Skills

Communication Skills

Social Connection

Social Activity

Academic Self-Confidence

Steadiness

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

6

17

13

9

47

34

76

9

2

6

Low Medium High

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

95

72

80

51

59

99

49

83

46

71

Low Medium High

Low ACT score (composite = 14)

SRI Indices Academic = 1 Academic = 20 Retention = 3 Retention = 17

Outcome First-year GPA = 1.5 First-year GPA = 2.22

Fall 07 status = dropped out Fall 07 status = still enrolled

Student A Student B

Implications (cont.)Institution-wide initiatives designed to impact student

success include several key elements:– Provide early identification of at-risk students– Use multiple sources of information to identify

students (e.g., achievement and placement scores, SRI results, faculty referrals)

– Refer identified students to resources and interventions

– Use a “whole student” approach for service delivery

– Track student progress and outcomes

15th Annual ACT Southwest RegionPostsecondary Student Success Conference

Omni La Mansion Del Rio-On the Riverwalk

San Antonio, Texas

April 6-8, 2011

Thank you!

ACT Southwest Region 8701 N MoPac Expressway, Suite 200

Austin, Texas 78759512 320-1850

don.pitchford@act.orgsue.wheeler@act.org