| The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of using results of ACT's WorkKeys examinations for academic placement in standard mathematics, English, and reading courses at the two-year college. WorkKeys was compared to ASSET, an instrument that is commonly used for this purpose. A sample of 71 students who took both tests were used to determine correlations between WorkKeys Applied Mathematics and ASSET Numerical Skills tests, and between WorkKeys Reading for Information and ASSET Reading. The correlations were determined to be a moderate .545 and .473 respectively, with variances of .297 and .224 for these two comparisons. Correlations between WorkKeys skill levels and academic placement that was based on ASSET scores were a moderate .442 for mathematics placement, an extremely weak .014 for English placement, and a weak.238 for reading placement. Sample sizes in each case were 189 for the mathematics placement analysis, 181 for the English placement analysis, and 64 for the reading placement analysis. Four of the regression analyses were statistically significant, with p < .05 in each case. Projected success rate ranges for placement based on WorkKeys skill levels were also determined. The conclusion was drawn that the correlations were not strong enough, and the success rate ranges were too broad to support the use of WorkKeys for placement into standard academic courses. |
