How the Common Core State Standards relate to the Michigan Merit Examination

By Cynthia Schmeiser

ACT recognizes that our state partners, including Michigan, have questions about how the Common Core State Standards Initiative will affect ACT’s existing and future work. As one of three development partners in the state-led Common Core Standards Initiative, ACT was able to bring to bear its rich research base and expertise in the development of the Common Core Standards. Indeed, ACT’s extensive empirical data regarding college and career readiness, based on its ACT and WorkKeys assessments, was a significant part of the foundation for creating the Common Core State Standards for College and Career Readiness in English Language Arts and Mathematics. These college and career readiness standards, in turn, serve as the foundation for the K–12 Common Core State Standards, currently under development.

ACT recently published an alignment report, How ACT and Common Core Align, to assist states in their adoption process of the Common Core State Standards. This report illustrates that ACT’s College Readiness Standards, the backbone of ACT’s College and Career Readiness System, align extremely well with the Common Core State Standards for College and Career Readiness in English Language Arts and Mathematics.

Should Michigan adopt the Common Core State Standards and sustain the use of the ACT and WorkKeys, many of the current benefits will continue:

• Clear alignment of assessments to state standards
• A college admission/placement score that motivates students and is accepted by postsecondary institutions in every state
• A work-readiness skills certification (the WorkKeys National Career Readiness Certificate)
• Increased access to the college pipeline for low-income and certain groups of minority students

Further, recent studies by ACT show that states administering EXPLORE, PLAN, and the ACT statewide have seen improvements in students’ academic achievement, improvements in the percentage of students taking the ACT-recommended core curriculum in high school, and increases in college enrollment and completion.

ACT intends to continue to actively participate in the standards movement by offering our unique expertise and resources to partner with—and help—state, districts, and schools implement college and career ready standards and monitor student progress toward meeting them. Based on our history of innovation, our assessment work on a national scale, and our core values, ACT is uniquely positioned to work with Michigan to extend, as needed, our College and Career Readiness System to meet the state’s specific needs.