WISEdash for Districts ACT Dashboards

About the Data | Scoring | Cautions | Dashboards| ACT Data Exchange| Resources

About the Data

Beginning with the 2014-15 school year, the ACT with writing® is the state-mandated assessment for students in grade 11 (except for approximately 1% of students with cognitive disabilities who are assessed with the Dynamic Learning Maps). The ACT test includes five subject areas – English, mathematics, reading, science, and writing.

The Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM™) assessment for grade 11 measures the academic progress of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities in the subject areas of ELA, mathematics and science.

Scoring

The ACT utilizes a 1-36 scale for English, mathematics, reading and science and a 2‑12 scale for writing. In addition to the subject area scores, the following scores are provided.

• Composite Score– is the average of English, mathematics, reading and science scores, rounded to the nearest whole number.
• STEM Score (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics)– average of mathematics and science scores, rounded to the nearest whole number.
• English Language Arts (ELA) Score– combination of English, reading and writing scores, rounded to the nearest whole number.

Notes:

• The Combined score (English/writing) combined a student's performance on the English and the writing test. The combined score was discontinued after the 2014-15 administration.
• Beginning in 2015-16 the STEM score based on mathematics and science was added.
• The ELA score for 2014-15 is Wisconsin specific and is not available in other states or nationally. Beginning with the 2015-16 administration, ACT reports an ELA score which includes the English, reading and writing scores. The English Language Arts score for 2014-15 was calculated by DPI by multiplying the writing score by three, combining that score with the English and Reading scores, and then dividing that result by three.
• For students who have only received a score for two of the three ELA subjects (English, reading, writing), DPI calculates an ELA score that combines the scores for the two subject areas that were completed with a zero from the subject that wasn’t completed and averages that total to create the ELA score.

Cautions

• Note that no single test can tell us whether students have learned everything that is important for students to learn. Additional local evidence should be reviewed for a more complete picture of student learning.
• Test participation for 2020-21 may be lower than in other years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When making comparisons to the state or across years, use caution when participation rates are lower than 95%, especially when the group of tested students is not representative of the overall population of students.
• The ACT Trends dashboard will be starting new trend lines beginning with the Spring 2024 administration. The trends dashboard will display trend results for school years 2022-2023 and earlier. New trends will start with the Spring 2024 administration and include future years.

Dashboards

ACT exam results in WISEdash are organized into two types of reporting:

• ACT Statewide - Results for students that took the exam as part of the Wisconsin statewide 11th grade ACT administration. These statewide results are available from the 2014-15 school year on.
• ACT Graduating Class - Results for students that are expected to graduate from high school in a given year. For example, if a student took the ACT in 11th grade in 2021-22 and was expected to graduate in 2022-23 then their results will appear in the 2022-23 ACT graduating class results. These graduating class results are available from the 2007-08 school year on.

Beginning with the 2015-16 graduating class results these two sets of ACT results will overlap. For example, a student’s 2014-15 Wisconsin statewide 11th grade ACT administration results will also be included in the 2015-16 ACT graduating class results.

ACT Statewide 11th Grade Administration Results

ACT statewide 11th grade administration dashboards include results for the Composite, Combined (2014-15 only), English Language Arts (ELA), English, mathematics, reading, science, STEM (2015-16 and later) and writing.

ACT statewide 11th grade administration results are reported as scores for all sections and College Ready / Not College Ready for English, mathematics, reading, science, ELA and STEM. ACT statewide 11th grade administration results beginning with the 2023-24 administration are also reported using the performance levels Developing, Approaching, Meeting and Advanced for ELA, mathematics and science. These performance levels are Wisconsin specific and are not available in other states or nationally. See https://dpi.wi.gov/assessment/act/data/act-proficiency for more information about these performance levels.

Prior to the 2023-24 administration the performance levels were reported as Below Basic, Basic, Proficient and Advanced.

The ACT Statewide – DPI Performance Levels dashboards are defaulted to show both ACT and Dynamic Learning Maps data. Users can filter by “Test Type” to view performance dashboard results for either assessment by itself. The scale score dashboards only provide data for the ACT. A “No ACT” category representing non‑tested students is included with the ACT Statewide – DPI Performance Levels dashboards. Students may not have been tested because they were opted out of testing by a parent, were absent on the test administration date or during the test administration window, or for another reason.

ACT Graduating Class Results

Student ACT graduating class exam results are available in WISEdash beginning with the 2007-08 school year. The results are submitted directly to DPI by ACT at the beginning of each school year for students that are expected to graduate from high school that year. For students that have taken the exam multiple times, DPI receives the result of the most recent attempt regardless of when that exam was actually taken.

When a student takes the ACT as an elective and not as part of the Wisconsin statewide 11th grade administration, the writing section of the ACT is optional. This means that some students in the ACT graduating class results will not have writing scores. If a student does not have a writing score, they will also not have an ELA score.

ACT graduating class results include results for the composite, English, mathematics, reading, science and writing (when available).

ACT graduating class results are reported as scores for all sections and College Ready / Below College Ready for English, mathematics, reading and science. No ACT benchmarks are provided for the composite and writing scores.

Exam results are included for students that cannot be positively identified from the record as well as for students that have requested to not be identified. With some exceptions, these records are included in aggregate charts with Unknown student demographics.

ACT Data Exchange

Districts are required to administer the ACT with writing in the spring of each school year to students in grade 11. After the conclusion of an administration window for all districts across the state, ACT results from that administration are provided to DPI from the test vendor. DPI loads these results for presentation in WISEdash for Districts. Part of the data loading process involves matching the assessment with the appropriate student in the data warehouse. That process uses the WSN, student name, and date of birth and allows some degree of variation or inaccuracy. Even so, some records cannot be matched and will be loaded and reported as unknown. A very small percentage of records may be misidentified with an incorrect student.

Resources

• ACT Home Page
• ACT Technical Manual
• DPI ACT High School Assessment Page
• DPI WISEdash Public ACT About the Data