Assessment of Students Enrolled April 1 or After
Students who are enrolled April 1, 2017 or after will be included in the denominator for the measurable skills gains (MSG).
Prior to FY17, students enrolled April 1 or after were not included in the denominator of the learning gain standard except under certain conditions.
With the new accountability system, programs have a measurable skills gains (MSG) target and Educational Functioning Level (EFL) completion is one of the three ways to achieve an MSG outcome.
Starting FY17, all pre-tests administered within the span of the fiscal year (July 1–June 30) will count towards the program's denominator for MSG regardless of the pre-test date.
Therefore, students enrolled April 1 or after will be included in the program's MSG target.
ACLS recommends that programs implement systems to ensure that students enrolled April 1 or after have the minimum of 65 hours (40 hours for students in correctional institutions) between their pre- and post-test (as per ACLS assessment policies) in order make significant progress.
Pre- and Post-Assessment Target
ACLS requires that programs pre- and post-test a minimum of 80% of their students as part of the revised assessment policy.
Pre- and post percentage is no longer a performance standard and ACLS will no longer assign points to this target as per the performance standard memo issued on November 2, 2016. ACLS will however continue to track pre/post assessment data through SMARTT and Cognos.
Programs should continue to employ best practices for attendance and retention in order to aim for 100% pre/post testing rate and to ensure that students progress in their academic goals.