The ACE program addresses non-cognitive skills that have typically not been developed by students most likely to enroll in the ACE program, due to the negative circumstances of their lives and their prior negative experiences as students. ACE, MPR Associates and Professor Martin Chemers—professor emeritus of psychology from the University of California Santa Cruz–developed an instrument that combines eight mediating factors from standardized instruments including academic self-efficacy, personal responsibility, college identity, four factors of mindfulness, and leadership and teamwork efficacy. ACE named this instrument the College Student Self Assessment Survey (CSSAS).
Criteria used to select mediating factors were that they were:
Correlated with student success and completion
Based on research grounded in theories
From published evidence in peer-reviewed journals
Developed into a standardized measurement instrument for each construct
After performing exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis on 11 psychological mediating factors
For further information on the development of the CSSAS instrument.
They found in this analysis of 769 students from 6 colleges participating in the ACE program that:
After the 5 day / 2 credit hour Professional Leadership and Communication Course for college-prepared students (or the 8 day / 3 credit hour Foundation of Leadership Course (FC) for underprepared students) students improved in 7 of the 8 factors at a p<.001 level of statistical significance
With the exception of two factors, the change remains consistent or improved four months later (at the end of the semester)
RTI International conducted a longitudinal study, and their final report, published in January 2014, shows that ACE students experience shifts in affective factors that are important for academic success.
The total n for this analysis is 769 students from 6 colleges participating in the ACE program measured at three different times:
Tan = Before Foundation of Leadership Course
Dark Blue = End of Foundation of Leadership Course
Light Blue = End of Semester
