TY  - JOUR
AU  - Bettinger,Eric P.
AU  - Evans,Brent J.
AU  - Pope,Devin G.
TI  - Improving College Performance and Retention the Easy Way: Unpacking the ACT Exam
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 17119
PY  - 2011
Y2  - June 2011
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17119
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17119.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Eric Bettinger
Stanford School of Education
CERAS 522, 520 Galvez Mall
Stanford, CA 94305
Tel: 650/736-7727
Fax: 650/723-9931
E-Mail: ebettinger@stanford.edu

Brent J. Evans
School of Education
Stanford University
E-Mail: bjevans@stanford.edu

Devin G. Pope
Booth School of Business
University of Chicago
5807 South Woodlawn Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
Tel: 773/702-2297
Fax: 773/702-0458
E-Mail: devin.pope@chicagobooth.edu
AB  - Colleges rely on the ACT exam in their admission decisions to increase their ability to differentiate between students likely to succeed and those that have a high risk of under-performing and dropping out. We show that two of the four sub tests of the ACT, English and Mathematics, are highly predictive of positive college outcomes while the other two subtests, Science and Reading, provide little or no additional predictive power. This result is robust across various samples, specifications, and outcome measures. We demonstrate that focusing solely on the English and Mathematics test scores greatly enhances the predictive validity of the ACT exam.
ER  -