If college and career ready varies across the full range of postsecondary options, the skills necessary to demonstrate readiness are defined by specific programmatic requirements. This allows a wider range of students to demonstrate readiness sufficient to qualify for at least one program. A crucial issue will be how the performance levels associated with readiness are set. The consortia assessments, SMARTER Balanced and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) propose using the results from tests in English language arts/literacy and mathematics as the primary arbiters of college and career readiness. In the measurement world, a distinction is made between two ways of determining if someone meets a standard when multiple criteria or performance standards are present, as will be the case when the consortia assessments are implemented on their own or in combination with other state-specific measures.
A conjunctive system requires students to meet a defined level on all applicable measures.
A compensatory system allows for some variation in scores across measures.
