In 1997, ACT released its College Readiness Standards (ACT, 2004; 2007) which identified the skills required for success in entry level postsecondary courses and described skills associated with specific score ranges across its assessments (EXPLORE, PLAN, and the ACT® test). Shortly after this, ACT published cut scores, or benchmarks, which identified the minimum scores required for college readiness in grades 8–12. These efforts gained national recognition with policy makers, educational organizations, and education reformers who had long argued that low standards and minimum competency testing disguised the large inequities which existed across schools and states and led to complacency among parents and students who assumed a high school diploma and proficiency on graduation tests were indicators of readiness to proceed to the next level—credit bearing college courses, rigorous postsecondary career training, or entry into the workforce. By the turn of the century it was evident that receipt of a diploma and passing a graduation test did not ensure preparation for these postsecondary experiences. In fact, research and policy reports showed just the opposite: students with such credentials were largely in need of remediation in college and were not prepared for postsecondary training or job entry.

On January 8, 2002, President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB; 2002) into law, which mandated standards and statewide testing in reading and math for grades 3–8 and in high school, with provisions in place to measure and report on school, district, and state performance over time. More recently, the Common Core State Standards effort was undertaken with strong incentives from the federal government to both adopt higher standards and build assessments based on the college and career readiness work ACT had already made foundational. In fact, the evidentiary basis from ACT-conducted curriculum surveys of high school and college faculty and statistical studies examining the relationship between performance (e.g., scores on ACT tests) and outcomes in college courses provided a substantial foundation for the development of the Common Core State Standards. The development of the Standards also included many additional studies that relied on the judgments or observations of educators, but statistical evidence from ACT was unique in providing an empirical link between mastery (or absence) of specific skills and academic performance in entry-level college courses across two- and four-year colleges.

ACT’s suite of curriculum-based achievement tests measured four academic domains (English language arts, reading, mathematics, and science) and subsequent research on standards, benchmarks and assessments both at ACT and nationally focused exclusively on these academic domains for a number of reasons. First, public school students were mandated to take assessments in reading, math, and science so there were convenient measures available. Second, NCLB and other accountability efforts focused nearly exclusively on student performance in these academic domains. Finally, as assessments were increasingly used to measure teacher accountability, it became much more difficult to incorporate other skills or competencies related to college and career success because teachers and schools could not be held directly responsible for such skills.

In the past decade, performance on reading, math, and to a lesser extent science assessments have come to define college and career readiness in the K–12 sector because of their convenience and the focus of accountability efforts. This has occurred while higher education and the workforce have focused increasingly on other competencies and skills that appear to be equally important for success in college and careers. ACT has long been a leading source of research on some of these additional dimensions that are essential for college and career success, such as interests (Discover® and the ACT), behaviors (ACT Engage®, ACT WorkKeys® Personal Skills Assessments), and generalized cognitive skills (ACT WorkKeys®), as well as a source of information on how core academic skill requirements (such as math and reading) can be assessed across different contexts such as work, career training, liberal arts, or the sciences.

Colleges have long recognized the importance of multiple domains. Admissions officers look to high school grades as indicators of persistence and achievement; student statements and letters of recommendation as indicators of character, behavior, and adaptability; the rigor of courses completed in high school as evidence of effort, motivation, and challenge; and activities and extracurricular involvement as indicators of leadership, teamwork, and collaboration. Research summarized in this report and an earlier report (Mattern et al., 2014) calls attention to the research basis for examining multiple domains and the importance of nonacademic domains for predicting outcomes such as retention, persistence, and engagement in college as well as graduation from college. These reports also summarize similar findings for employment, where employers use a wide range of practices to make inferences about individuals’ likely adaptation, persistence, and contribution to the job,organization, and society. Most know of academically talented students who did not persist in college and highly skilled workers who failed in their jobs. Unfortunately, the early research focus on academic skills as measured by assessments coupled with the focus on school and teacher accountability have led to a common assumption that college and career readiness are defined by one’s math and reading skills. It is a mistake to focus only on what is commonly measured when research findings clearly show success in postsecondary environments is related to multiple domains and that the specific behaviors, academic skills, interests, and cognitive skills needed may actually differ somewhat across settings, whether we focus on college majors or occupations.

Building on research conducted at ACT over the last fifty years, this report describes the development of a holistic framework that can provide a more complete description of educationand work readiness. The framework is organized into four broad domains: core academic skills, cross-cutting capabilities, behavioral skills, and education and career navigation skills. To take full advantage of emerging knowledge in this area, development of this framework is based on a comprehensive review of relevant theory, education and work standards, empirical research, input from experts in the field, and a variety of other sources for each of the four broad domains.

• Core academic skills include the domain-specific knowledge and skills necessary to performessential tasks in the core academic content areas of English language arts, mathematics, andscience.
• Cross-cutting capabilities include the general knowledge and skills necessary to perform essential tasks across academic content areas. This includes technology and information literacy,collaborative problem solving, thinking and metacognition, and studying and learning.
• Behavioral skills include interpersonal, self-regulatory, and task-related behaviors important for adaptation to and successful performance in education and workplace settings.
• Education and career navigation skills include the personal characteristics, processes, and knowledge that influence individuals as they navigate their educational and career paths (e.g.,make informed, personally relevant decisions; develop actionable, achievable plans).

The report also begins to build an integrated view of education and work readiness, acknowledging that constructs across the four broad domains are not independent, that their combined effects provide a more holistic understanding, and that different constructs are often more or less important for different outcomes associated with education and work success. To illustrate the multidimensional nature of readiness for education and workplace success, examples are provided that focus on two key transitions: the transition from high school to college and the transition from college to work. For each of these two transitions, we present a holistic model of success, specifying factors from each of the broad domains that are important for success. Similar models can and should be developed for different outcomes, since the same constructs are not equally important across all outcomes.

We hope the reader will take away a few central findings and ideas from this report and other research conducted by ACT on college and career readiness. Preparation for college, careers or life requires skills and competencies from multiple domains. Academic skills, whether focused solely on math and reading, or more broadly to include science, are clearly essential to most definitions of postsecondary success, but alone they are not sufficient to ensure success. The specific skills needed in a domain like math may differ somewhat across majors or occupations, and our assessments and benchmarks need to be sensitive to these complexities even when one size fits all is more convenient for accountability. We invite the reader to examine the complexities associated with behavioral skills, how their manifestations change with growth and development over time, and how important behavioral skills are for success in any environment or context. Finally, we hope the reader recognizes the role that cross-cutting cognitive skills play in learning, self-direction, and a positive predisposition to lifelong learning, as well as how important education and career navigation skills are to progressing along the continuum from school to college to career. It is our belief that a holistic examination of college and career readiness such as this can improve outcomes that lead to education and workplace success.