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It discusses ACT’s recommended core curriculum, highlights gaps shown by college readiness benchmarks, and explains how end-of-course exams are designed using assumptions about essential content and mastery. 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Without sufficient rigor, many students begin college needing remedial work and are less likely to succeed in credit-bearing first-year courses.","Answer",{"name":64,"@type":59,"acceptedAnswer":65},"What role do ACT’s end-of-course examinations play in measuring course quality?",{"text":66,"@type":62},"The examinations are intended to measure how well students mastered content considered essential for specific high school courses. They are based on rigorous, empirically derived objectives.",{"name":68,"@type":59,"acceptedAnswer":69},"What are the goals of the QualityCore end-of-course examinations?",{"text":70,"@type":62},"The goals include improving student achievement in preparatory courses, focusing course content on both state standards and readiness standards for college and workforce training, and providing schools and districts with course-level data to improve teaching and learning.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":73,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":75,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":77,"site_id":7},529303,1791520893,{"code":4,"msg":80,"data":81},"success",[82,86,90,93,98,103,108,113,118,121,125],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":83,"show_sort_weight":84,"slug":85},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":87,"show_sort_weight":88,"slug":89},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":91,"slug":92},70,"exam",{"id":94,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":95,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":97},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":99,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":100,"show_sort_weight":101,"slug":102},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":104,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":105,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":107},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":109,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":110,"show_sort_weight":111,"slug":112},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":114,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":115,"show_sort_weight":116,"slug":117},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":119,"show_sort_weight":116,"slug":120},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":122,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":123,"show_sort_weight":122,"slug":124},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":126,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":127,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":128},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":80,"data":130},{"doc_id":77,"user_id":131,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":132,"doc_module":4,"category_id":33,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":133,"file_id":134,"file_url":135,"file_type":136,"file_size":137,"view_count":4,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":94,"language":138,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":139,"faqs":140,"seo_title":141,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":78,"read_time":142},5909892115043,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8","ACT’s QualityCore end-of-course examinations are based on rigorous course objectives that are empirically based, derived from an intensive study of targeted high schools, and cross-validated by a selection of teachers in high-performing high schools across the United States.  \nDefining Rigorous Content for ACT’s  \n™  \nQualityCore End-of-Course Examinations  \nIntroduction  \nIncreasing numbers of high school graduates are going to college. Nearly threefourths of new graduates are continuing on to postsecondary education within two years of leaving high school (Berkner & Chavez, 1997). Many more students follow over the course of their working lives. However, too many of these students must begin college by taking remedial rather than credit-bearing courses. Nearly a quarter of those who start in four-year colleges—and nearly half of those who start in two-year colleges—do not even make it to the second year (Cambiano, Denny, & Devore, 2000) .  \nAlthough high schools have worked hard to increase the numbers of students who go to college, the challenge now is to determine what can be done to improve students’ chances of success once they get there. Adelman (2006) reports that the most reliable predictor of college success is the quality and intensity of the high school curriculum.  \nStudies have revealed the minimum coursework essential for college success, reflected in ACT’s recommended number of core courses: four or more years of English and three or more years each of mathematics, science, and social studies (ACT, 2004) .  \nHowever, ACT’s national college readiness indicators, the ACT College Readiness Benchmarks, show that three out of four ACT-tested 2007 highschool graduates who take a core curriculum are not prepared to take creditbearing entry-level college courses with a reasonable chance of succeeding in those courses.  \nA recent ACT policy report, Rigor at Risk, suggests that students today do not have a reasonable chance of becoming ready for college unless they take a number of additional higher-level courses beyond the minimum core, and that even students who do take these additional higher-level courses are not always likely to be ready for college either (ACT, 2007) .  \nThis finding is in part a reflection on the quality and intensity—in other words, the rigor—of the high school curriculum. Without improving the quality and content of core courses, it appears that most students need to take additional higher-level courses to learn what they should have learned from a rigorous core curriculum, with no guarantee even then that they will be prepared for college-level work.  \n©2007 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. The ACT® is a registered trademark of ACT, Inc., in the U. S.A. and other countries. QualityCore™ and College  \nReadiness Standards™ are trademarks ofACT, Inc. IC 050805460  \nMany high schools use end-of-course examinations to measure course quality. Such examinations are intended to measure a high school’s course offerings by assessing how well students have mastered the content considered essential to the courses.  \nBut an end-of-course examination is only as good as the assumptions used in designing it. What is a course’s “essential” content? And what does it mean to master it? The end-of-course examinations developed by ACT are derived from assumptions that offer unique and challenging answers to these questions.  \nIn order for students to have the best chance of succeeding in college, the highschool courses they take must be of sufficient rigor. In far too many high schools, the content in core courses is watered down, and ACT research shows that too many students who take these courses are not ready for the challenges of college, unable to succeed in credit-bearing first-year college coursework. Nearly half of the ACT-tested high school graduating class of 2007 who earned course grades ofA and B in high school Algebra II and Physics “capstone”courses did not demonstrate readiness for entry-level colle","cbCaivjDpKfkdsKY","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaivjDpKfkdsKY","pdf",74542,"English","# Introduction\n## On Course for Success: Model Syllabi","[{\"question\":\"Why does the document emphasize rigorous high school coursework for college success?\",\"answer\":\"It states that the quality and intensity of the high school curriculum are the most reliable predictors of college success. Without sufficient rigor, many students begin college needing remedial work and are less likely to succeed in credit-bearing first-year courses.\"},{\"question\":\"What role do ACT’s end-of-course examinations play in measuring course quality?\",\"answer\":\"The examinations are intended to measure how well students mastered content considered essential for specific high school courses. They are based on rigorous, empirically derived objectives.\"},{\"question\":\"What are the goals of the QualityCore end-of-course examinations?\",\"answer\":\"The goals include improving student achievement in preparatory courses, focusing course content on both state standards and readiness standards for college and workforce training, and providing schools and districts with course-level data to improve teaching and learning.\"}]","Defining Rigorous Content for ACT’s - QualityCore End-of-Course Examinations - Introduction | PDF",13]