RAPID CITY—The South Dakota Board of Regents can now verify that students in the state’s public universities gain more from the first two years of college than other first and second year students in a national reference group. Today in a subcommittee members of the Regents received a report on the gains in achievement as measured by the proficiency exam, instituted by the Regents as a requirement for all second-semester sophomores in Spring 1998.

"This analysis provides the Regents with objective data that measure the value our state universities add to the educational achievement that our students bring with them when they enroll," said Regents President Harvey C. Jewett, IV, of Aberdeen. "We now can measure that a specific percentage of our students actually gained in achievement in writing, math, reading, and science. We offer this as an accountability tool to the students, parents, and policy makers of this state."

In order to measure gains in achievement a student must possess both an ACT score and a CAAP score. Most freshmen entering a South Dakota public university present a score on the college admissions exam produced by American College Testing (ACT) of Iowa City, Iowa. In Spring 1998, after two years of pilot testing, the Regents began to require that all second-semester sophomores take the CAAP, Collegiate Assessment of Academic Performance, also produced by ACT. Because both tests are maintained by the same testing company, it is able to measure gains in achievement in skill areas.

The CAAP has been normed over three years on more than 120,000 students enrolled in more than 100 universities across the country. "At every single Regental institution, our students showed gains, that were at the expected level or greater than expected, in larger percentages than the national reference group. We have a greater impact on the achievement of our students than the average institution using the CAAP," said Regents Executive Director Robert T. Tad Perry.