Piloting a Short Form of the Academic Competence Evaluation Scales

A growing body of research indicates that noncognitive factors are important predictors of students’ academic and life success (e.g., Garcia, The need to address noncognitive skills in the education policy agenda (Briefing Paper No. 386), http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED558126.pdf, 2014). Despite this evidence base, there are few psychometrically sound measures of such factors appropriate for use in research and practice. One currently available measure is the Academic Competence Evaluation Scales (ACES; DiPerna and Elliott, Academic Competence Evaluation Scales, The Psychological Corporation, San Antonio, TX, 2000) which assesses the skills, attitudes, and behaviors of students that contribute to school success. The length of the ACES (73 items) may limit its use at the primary and secondary levels within a multi-tiered service delivery system or for large-scale educational research. To address this need, the current study piloted a short form of the ACES (ASF) with a sample of 301 elementary students. Results provided initial evidence for the reliability and validity of scores from the ASF.