ACT: Years of Experience Helping Students Prepare for College

ACT officials are watching the developments with interest. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, after all.

For many years, ACT has been defining and measuring the skills needed for success in the first year of college with its National Curriculum Survey, Standards for Transition^®, and Pathways for Transition^®.

In the National Curriculum Survey, conducted every three years, ACT talks to thousands of high school and college educators to determine what is being taught in the nation’s schools and what students need to know to be successful in entry-level college work. A nationally representative sample of teachers in grades seven through twelve, curriculum supervisors, and college faculty who teach entry-level courses in English, mathematics, and science participate in this survey. ACT uses the information gathered to design its series of exams.

The Standards for Transition are standards-based descriptions of what students know and are likely to be able to do when they score in certain ranges on ACT assessments. The Standards, which correlate with state standards nationwide, relate students’ proficiency to what is needed to succeed in postsecondary education.

The Pathways for Transition describe activities teachers can use to help students rise to the next level of proficiency.

All three tools are part of ACT’s EPAS/Educational Planning and Assessment System^® which provides systematic guidance and feedback to students, parents and teachers, early and often. An integrated, longitudinal, data-driven system, EPAS gives states, districts, and schools what they need to help students successfully navigate many of the transitions in the K–16 system. EPAS also includes the EXPLORE^® test for eighth and ninth graders, PLAN^® for tenth graders, and the ACT Assessment^® for eleventh and twelfth graders. Along with the National Curriculum Survey, Standards for Transition, and Pathways for Transition, assessment results provide a common language that students, parents, middle and high school teachers, and college professors can use to help each student address weaknesses, build on strengths, and achieve individual success.

Additional reporting services provide similar information to schools to help them fine tune their performance. Schools and districts that administer one or more of the EPAS programs may purchase optional reporting services that present results for a cohort of students displayed in the language of the Standards for Transition. In each content area, English, Math, Reading, and Science, students’ performance is reported by curricular strand and score range. The reports allow schools to compare the performance of their students with the performance of students nationwide. Analyzing results makes it easier for schools to ensure that instruction is appropriate for students based on what they already know and are able to do.

Each content report has a corresponding guide that includes sets of sample test questions and instructional activities, again linked to the Standards for Transition.

Each of the guides for EXPLORE, PLAN, and the ACT Assessment, has recently been enhanced with the addition of a chapter that addresses the needs of low-scoring students. Topics address factors that affect student performance, the characteristics of low-scoring students, and the importance of analyzing assessment data. Within each content guide, additional topics describe the characteristics of proficiency, i.e., what does a proficient writer look like? What are the characteristics of a mathematically literate student? What are the characteristics of a proficient reader? What are the characteristics of a scientifically literate student?

Suggestions for enhancing learning also are provided: how to help students write better, understand mathematical situations, negotiate literary and informational texts, and develop scientific literacy.

Each content guide includes instructional activities suitable for low-scoring students. The activities are directly connected to a real-world application and include embedded assessments, many of which include their own scoring rubrics.

Educators know that they can count on ACT to continue to develop and refine tools for students, parents, and teachers. They’ve depended on the company for forty-plus years to do just that. The fact that others now are creating similar tools reinforces ACT’s long-standing message: Students need early and regular feedback throughout their schooling, information that tells them what they know, what they are ready to learn next, and what they need to know to meet their own standards for success.

For more information on EPAS programs and services, contact ACT Educational Services at 319/337-1040, epas@act.org, or at www.act.org/epas/.