Year-Over-Year Study
Using student data from previously submitted studies, this customized study will examine trends in entering cohort admission measures (e.g. SAT scores, HSGPA, etc.) and their predictive relationships (e.g. with college GPA) over time, within and across student entering cohorts.
You’ll learn:
- How admission measures relate to college performance at your institution over time.
- How admission measures, and their relationships to college performance, might differ by entering cohorts at your institution.
Designing Your Study
In this section, get an overview of how to design your study. For detailed step-by-step instructions, download the Year-Over-Year SAT Admission Study Guide in the Resources section of this page.
Choosing Previously Submitted SAT Admission Validity Study Submissions for Analysis
You’ll select at least two previous ACES SAT Admission Validity Study data file submissions (or Data-Only submissions for institutions participating in the National Validity Study) that you want to examine in this study—for example, the 2018 entering cohort and their corresponding first academic year data and the 2017 entering cohort and their first academic year data.
In an ACES Year-Over-Year study, the customized report shows the relationships between different predictors, including SAT scores, and student performance in college, and trends for students from different entering cohort years at your institution over time.
Choosing Predictors
All ACES Year-Over-Year studies analyze SAT score(s) and give you the option to also study high school GPA as a predictor. In addition, you can include up to four other predictors from the ACES database (number of different AP Exams, number of Honors or AP courses, average of AP Exam scores, and number of activities during high school).
Getting Your Report
When your study is finished—within 20 business days of your completed request—we’ll notify you that your report is available on the ACES website and you can sign in to access it. You will receive two deliverables:
- A complete, printable report in PDF format that shows your chosen predictors with charts, tables, and detailed explanations.
- A report in HTML format featuring interactive graphs. You can click to display or hide data, compare data, zoom in and out, take a snapshot, sort table columns, and more. You may want to insert these graphs into campus reports or presentations that you are preparing for various constituents.
FAQ
Can I study the HSGPA supplied by my own institution in the Year-Over-Year report or does that need to be the HSGPA from the ACES database?
You can choose either to use the HSGPA supplied by your institution or the HSGPA from the ACES database. The “Supplied by your institution” choice will only appear if all selected submissions included HSGPA values provided by your institution.
If one of your submissions did not include HSGPA and you wish to use HSGPA supplied by your institution, you can submit the original data along with institution-supplied HSGPA as a new Admission Validity Study. Once that study is processed by ACES, the data submission will be available for your Year-Over-Year study.
Can I include cohorts from prior to the 2017 entering cohort in a Year-Over-Year study?
The ACES system relaunched in February 2018. The earliest entering cohort you can study is the 2017 entering cohort.
If I didn’t submit all of the previous cohort files from my institution, how can I conduct a Year-Over-Year study in ACES?
Only earlier submissions made by you will be listed. If someone other than you in your institution or educational system submitted earlier studies, either they can make the Year-Over-Year Study request in the ACES system or they can contact ACES via email and ask to request that the studies they submitted be made accessible to you.
What is the limit to the number of cohorts and number of academic years that I can examine in a Year-Over-Year?
You may analyze up to four cohorts, each through four years of college, within one Year-Over-Year study.
Can we examine subgroups in a Year-Over-Year study?
Currently, the system does not include custom subgroups for a Year-Over-Year study.
Can we examine our institution-provided additional predictors in a Year-Over-Year study?
Additional predictors can only be selected from the ACES database (Number of different AP exams, Number of Honors or AP courses, Average of AP Exam Scores, and Number of activities during high school).
Is there a matched file associated with a Year-Over-Year study?
No. A match file is not returned with a Year-Over-Year study.
Can we conduct AP, CLEP, SAT Placement or ACCUPLACER Year-Over-Year studies?
Not at this time. Year-Over-Year SAT Studies are based on student datasets previously submitted and processed from SAT Admission Validity Studies (or Data-Only submissions for institutions participating in the National Validity Study).
What if I would like to review my previous ACES reports and files before submitting a Year-Over-Year study?
Before finalizing the submission, you can verify the data sources for the study. Each data submission appears in a separate card identified by entering cohort year and academic year.
What if I decide to add or remove a submission after confirming my selection of submissions to be included in my ACES Year-Over-Year study?
After you confirm the submissions to be included in your Year-Over-Year study (by clicking the Create button) you will not be able to drop or add submissions from the study. However, you can easily begin a new Year-Over-Year study with a different set of submissions.
Can we use scores from our local tests as predictors in ACES studies?
Yes, you can include local test scores as predictors in all studies, except AP placement validity study, CLEP placement validity study, and Year-over- Year study.