Being deemed college-ready by test scores has no affect on college attendance.

 In 2015, Wisconsin began mandating the ACT college entrance exam and the WorkKeys career readiness assessment. This study assesses how this policy affected college attendance,  estimating a positive policy effect for middle/high-income students, no effect for low-income students, and greater effects at high schools that had lower ACT participation before the policy. 

The authors find little evidence that being deemed college-ready by one’s ACT scores or career-ready by one’s WorkKeys scores affects college attendance probabilities. Pragmatically, the findings highlight the policy’s excellence and equity consequences, which are complex given that the policy has principally helped advantaged students. Theoretically, the findings shed light on students’ (dis)inclinations to update educational beliefs in light of new signals.