EXPLORE Helps Students Prepare for Future College and Career Success

With research now linking eighth-grade achievement to college and career readiness, ACT’s EXPLORE^® assessment and guidance program for eighth and ninth graders is more essential than ever.

Students listen to their teacher explain a concept during a class in Thornton, Colorado.

EXPLORE serves as the entry point into ACT’s College Readiness System, which also includes PLAN^® for tenth graders and the ACT^® for eleventh and twelfth graders. This integrated series of research-based assessment programs is designed to measure students’ progressive development of knowledge and skills in the same academic areas from grades eight through twelve.

Reflecting the same content areas as PLAN and the ACT, EXPLORE consists of four curriculum-based achievement tests: English, mathematics, reading, and science. These standardized multiple-choice tests are based on the major subject areas of high school and postsecondary instructional programs.

EXPLORE marks an important beginning for a student’s future academic and career success.

• Helps educators structure high school planning and career exploration for students and parents, and serves as a baseline to monitor academic progress.
• Identifies students’ strengths and weaknesses early in their educational development, when they have the greatest opportunity to build on their skills and establish a four-year program of studies that will help them achieve their education and career goals.
• Allows students to explore personally relevant career options through information collected on the UNIACT Interest Inventory, an EXPLORE component.
• Offers helpful information to students and parents, including practical hints for making a successful transition into high school.

Established in 1992 and proven effective, EXPLORE is taken by nearly one million students during a regular school day each year. Here’s how five schools are using EXPLORE to help their students prepare for the future.

Adams 12 Five Star School District
Thornton, Colorado

The road to academic achievement in the Adams 12 Five Star School District starts with EXPLORE.

Students work on a project in a chemistry class in Thornton, Colorado.

The results help staff prepare students for the academic expectations of high school. So well, in fact, that in each of the past four years, the district has shown improvement on the ACT and, this past year, made the greatest increase in performance on the ACT among school districts in the Denver metropolitan area.

“EXPLORE results inform students of current academic status and reveal what they can do to advance achievement. Students more clearly understand which future opportunities will be available if they keep doing what they’ve been doing. They can also see what could happen if they take more challenging courses and work consistently,” said Stan Hesting, assistant superintendent, School Effectiveness and Accountability, for the district.

Adams 12 administers EXPLORE to eighth and ninth graders, PLAN to tenth graders, and the ACT to eleventh graders. The district uses EXPLORE results for early intervention, student course selection, and to improve student achievement.

Motivating students to make a “consistent, quality effort over time” is a goal for the district, and ACT’s College Readiness System supports students in doing just that. Staff strive to make the information from EXPLORE meaningful to students, showing them how their results can predict their future PLAN and ACT scores.

“We do a number of things to advance academic performance and to help students do well on the ACT, because we feel their ACT score is the key to opening the doors to additional opportunities,” said Hesting.

The district also uses the information from EXPLORE to bring greater academic focus to course content and to support the increased effectiveness of teachers. “EXPLORE helps us identify adjustments that need to be made to ensure that what is taught results in the greatest benefit for students.”

Beaverton School District
Beaverton, Oregon

Of all the assessments administered in the Beaverton School District, EXPLORE is one of the most highly valued.

Students participate in a humanities class at Stoller Middle School in the Beaverton School District.

“We feel we get extremely valuable information from eighth-grade EXPLORE. Because the students, teachers, and counselors receive the EXPLORE information just before they begin high school forecasting, we are able to take the information and use it to help students make informed choices as they plan for their high school future,” said Dee Carlson, research specialist for the Beaverton School District, the third largest district in Oregon.

Beaverton students take EXPLORE in eighth and ninth grades, PLAN in tenth grade, and the ACT in eleventh grade.

Educators and counselors use the data from EXPLORE to help eighth graders and their schools set a baseline to determine whether students are progressing academically through high school. The ninth-grade EXPLORE, PLAN, and the ACT provide more information as the students’ progress is measured.

In its three years of collecting data from EXPLORE, Beaverton has determined that students who do not score at least 17 on the math test will most likely need extra help to pass Algebra I. That help comes via an extended time–Algebra I class designed to give students more time to master the concepts. “This extended time class has reduced our failures in Algebra I,” said Carlson.

Students’ ability to pass an Algebra I class early in high school is essential, as new Oregon Board of Education diploma standards will require that students pass three years of math at the Algebra I level or higher to graduate from high school.

EXPLORE has also made a big difference in high school course selection, especially math and science, said Carlson. “Before we had it, many times students were placed based more on their behavior in class and their homework compliance, than on how well they really understood the material.” Knowledge of their scores has also helped students make early decisions to continue with math and science beyond their required years.

Bishop Kenny High School
Jacksonville, Florida

Ensuring students are placed in the right courses is the main goal of EXPLORE at Bishop Kenny High School, a co-educational Catholic college preparatory school that enrolls more than 1,410 students in grades nine through twelve.

Jerry Buckley (left), director of guidance services at Bishop Kenny High School in Jacksonville, Florida, meets with a student.

Administrators compare students’ EXPLORE results with ninth-grade course recommendations from teachers and with the outcomes of other tests to determine student placement in freshman year.

“EXPLORE definitely plays a key role in the academic success of our students. The data allows us to get students into the right classes in ninth grade based on their abilities in eighth grade, and to move them forward from there,” said Jerry Buckley, director of guidance at Bishop Kenny. “How well students perform in ninth grade is key to their success in high school. EXPLORE allows greater accuracy in assuring students are appropriately challenged.”

EXPLORE results are important to students. They know where they are academically before entering high school and know what to expect when it comes time to take PLAN and the ACT. “EXPLORE acclimates students to standardized testing and prepares them for the kinds of assessments they’ll be taking in the years ahead.”

All three of the assessments—EXPLORE, PLAN, and the ACT—offer an aligned flow of data to help guidance counselors advise students appropriately, based on their skills.

Hastings Public Schools
Hastings, Nebraska

EXPLORE helps educators in the Hastings Public Schools District give students a dream.

“EXPLORE shows students the college and career doors that could open for them. It inspires them to think ahead to their futures,” said Troy Loeffelholz, director of curriculum for Hastings Public Schools, a district of about 3,300 students.

A Hastings High School student works on an assignment in chemistry lab.

“We serve a lot of underprivileged young people, many of whom will be first-generation college students. The data we get from EXPLORE allows them to see how successful they could be in high school, college, and career. Many don’t realize their potential until they take EXPLORE.”

Hastings has developed an eighth-grade career exploration curriculum through the guidance department. The district is beginning its first chapter in the creation of career academies, which complement EXPLORE’s interest inventory component. In the future, students can pursue career tracks in such areas as healthcare, manufacturing, and education as part of the district’s overall program plan for high school students. “The academies will help make the EXPLORE data relevant to students, because they can see how their education connects to future careers,” he said.

The district also uses EXPLORE data for high school preparation. Counselors assist students as they select their high school courses, focusing on their strengths and areas of interest. Hastings also tracks academic success and college readiness through a second administration of EXPLORE in ninth grade and PLAN in tenth grade.

Monona Grove School District
Monona and Cottage Grove, Wisconsin

EXPLORE data is helping to align middle school and high school instruction with benchmarks for postsecondary success in the Monona Grove School District.

A group of eighth-grade students works on a project at Glacial Drumlin School in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin.

“Like many school districts, we experience a tremendous disconnect between middle school and high school student learning and postsecondary measures of success,” said Bill Breisch, director of instruction for the district. “EXPLORE data gives us critical tools to strengthen the learning connection between middle school and high school, which, in turn, will over time lead to much higher levels of college and career readiness.”

Sharing EXPLORE annual and growth results has generated helpful conversations among middle school and high school teachers. “EXPLORE helps high school teachers know what students’ skills are coming out of eighth grade, so they can adjust their teaching to support growth in learning for all students. It also helps middle school and high school teachers devise interventions to prepare our students for postsecondary success.”

The district sponsors individual school and joint middle school/high school data meetings with the teachers, so they can have time to review and discuss the use of the data to improve student outcomes.

“Using data from EXPLORE, PLAN, and the ACT helps teachers, students, and parents improve student learning throughout middle school and high school,” he said. “We’re in this together to build college and career readiness for all of our students.”