The ATI Test of Essential Academic Skills (TEAS) is a nursing assessment that measures students understanding of Mathematics, Science, Reading Comprehension and English Language Arts, content deemed necessary for entry into prelicensure nursing or allied health preparation programs. Recent 5-year data from 2019 to 2023 demonstrates that TEAS scores remain a reliable predictor of early nursing academic performance post-pandemic. The Reading section of the TEAS is particularly indicative of success, with the strongest correlation to early achievement in nursing programs. An analysis of first-attempt scores from TEAS correlated with the Content Mastery Series Fundamentals exam scores, considering only complete and sufficiently accurate assessments, reveals a positive and moderate relationship between the overall TEAS score with Fundamentals scores across different types of nursing programs (correlations range from 0.23 to 0.57).

Data:
Data from January 1st, 2019, through December 31, 2023 were included. The first-attempt scores for students taking Fundamentals were matched with first-attempt TEAS scores. Only those assessments marked as 80% or more complete and 30% correct or higher, and with all four sections of TEAS completed, were included. Student’s program type (ADN, BSN, PN) was determined from the time when students took the Fundamentals exam. Three testing delivery methods with large sample sizes were used to examine the correlation pattern across the years: Proctorio, Web, and Test @ ATI. Correlations were run for the four TEAS section scores and the composite score with the Fundamentals score.

Findings:
The correlations between TEAS composite score and Fundamentals score for each program ranged from 0.23 to 0.57, indicating that TEAS can be used as an indicator of preparedness for early academic success in nursing program.

The correlations between TEAS section scores and Fundamentals score also showed low to moderate relationships. Among the four section scores from 2023 TEAS results, Reading is the strongest predictor of achievement early in a nursing program (.31-.38).

Key Messages:
TEAS scores, especially in the Reading section, are confirmed to be effective in forecasting the initial success of nursing students, even after the pandemic.