Preparing Students for College and Careers

Katie Larsen McClarty is chief assessment officer at Questar Assessments. She oversees item and test development, publishing, psychometrics, and research. Her own research centers on assessment design, college readiness, standard setting, and gifted education. Krista D. Mattern is a director of ACTs Statistical and Applied Research Department. Her research focuses on evaluating the validity and fairness of both cognitive and noncognitive measures for predicting student success. She is also interested in higher education issues such as college choice, major selection, and college completion. Matthew N. Gaertner is a principal research Scientist in SRI Internationals Center for Education Policy. His research focuses on college and career readiness and the effects of educational policies and reforms on disadvantaged students access, persistence, and achievement.

Foreword by Mitchell D. Chester Acknowledgements Introduction by Katie Larsen McClarty, Matthew N. Gaertner, & Krista D. Mattern Section 1: Defining and Measuring College and Career Readiness Chapter 1: The New Complexity of Readiness for College and Careers by David T. Conley Chapter 2: Conceptualizing and Measuring Progress towards College and Career Readiness in Mathematics by William McCallum and James W. Pellegrino. Chapter 3: More than a Test Score: Defining and Measuring Personal Qualities by Matthew N. Gaertner and Richard D. Roberts Chapter 4: The Consistent Influence of General Cognitive Ability in College, Career, and Lifetime Achievement by Jonathan Wai, Frank C. Worrell, and Christopher F. Chabris Section 2: Validating College- and Career-Readiness Performance Levels Chapter 5: Building External Validity into the Process: Evidence-Based Readiness Standards by Katie Larsen McClarty, Susan Cooper Loomis, and Mary J. Pitoniak Chapter 6: Empirically-Based College- and Career-Readiness Cut Scores and Performance Standards by Wayne J. Camara, Jeff M. Allen, and Joann L. Moore Chapter 7: College Placement Strategies: Evolving Considerations and Practices by Elisabeth Barnett and Vikash Reddy Chapter 8: Fairness Issues in the Assessment of College and Career Readiness by Rebecca Zwick Chapter 9: Mixed Messages: When Different Assessments Yield Different Results by Krista D. Mattern and Matthew N. Gaertner Section 3: Improving College and Career Readiness Chapter 10: Early Intervention in College and Career Readiness: The GEAR UP Model and its Implications for 21st Century Education Policy by Chrissy Tillery and Brent Duckor Chapter 11: Multiple Mathematics Pathways to College, Careers, and Beyond by Francesca Fraga Leahy and Carolyn Landel Chapter 12: Supporting College and Career Readiness through Social Psychological Interventions by Kathryn M. Kroeper and Mary C. Murphy Chapter 13: Changing the Assessment Relationship to Empower Teachers and Students by Margaret Heritage Conclusion: Future Directions for College- and Career-Readiness Research: Where do we go from Here? By Krista D. Mattern, Matthew N. Gaertner, & Katie Larsen McClarty List of Contributors