ACT Awards Program Enables Innovative Education Initiatives

“There was a huge increase in interest from the first year,” said Richard J. Noeth, director of ACT’s Policy Research department, which administers the awards. The program website had 3,000 hits during the application period, and there were about 100 direct inquiries and 30 applications. Volume is not the most important measure, however.

“Success isn’t necessarily about the numbers. A more important measure is whether the programs we support are efficacious, if they’re serving their at-risk populations,” Noeth said. The goal of the awards program is to provide support and services to organizations that help at-risk students succeed in education and careers. Awards are provided in the form of ACT programs, services, consultation, and resources. Each year, four to six awards are made. This year’s recipients are:

• Kenwood Academy’s Project Assist program, which will establish a resource network to help identify the academic strengths and weaknesses of the Chicago school’s incoming ninth-grade and current tenth-grade students. In the short run, the school wants to enhance learning. The ultimate goal is to increase the likelihood that students will attend college.

• Chicago State University’s Career Exploration and Orientation Program (CEOP), an initiative developed to enhance retention by helping freshmen choose a major. CEOP organizers want to reduce the number of undecided majors, increase student retention, and demonstrate increased academic performance.

• University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma’s Linking Assessment to Academic Success project, which ties assessment to academic success through the improvement of an integrated retention model. The model supports learning interventions that include identification of at-risk students; faculty advising for at-risk, undeclared-major students; and learning interventions through academic advising, counseling, and learning resources at the Chickasha school.

• The University of Florida’s College Reach-Out Program (CROP), designed by the Gainesville campus to increase the number of graduates by providing motivation and preparation for low-income, disadvantaged students who otherwise would be unlikely to seek admission to college.

• Miami Northwestern Senior High School’s Progressing Onward with Educational Resources (POWER) program, which targets at-risk juniors and seniors in Miami, Florida. The program aims to enhance opportunities for applying to and entering postsecondary education. Participants spend their junior year researching colleges and careers, visiting colleges, and preparing for the ACT Assessment^®. During their senior year, they focus on the college admissions process.

• The Science Bound program at Purdue University, developed by the West Lafayette, Indiana, campus in partnership with the Indianapolis Public Schools and the Indianapolis business community to encourage underrepresented students to pursue careers in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology. The program identifies seventh-grade students interested in math and science who might not otherwise go to college. It provides enrichment programs and mentorship throughout high school. Those who successfully complete Science Bound and are accepted into math, engineering, or science programs at Purdue are awarded full-tuition scholarships.

ACT Awards are provided based on the benefit a program is likely to offer its defined at-risk population; overall program design; how readily it could be replicated elsewhere; and how much support a program has, or as Noeth puts it, “the ability to get the work done.”

Awards generally consist of the use of ACT products and services, usually a mix of research, consultation, and testing materials.

The Science Bound program at Purdue, for example, plans to gather baseline data on its inaugural group of 60 students with ACT’s EXPLORE^® program. Later, organizers will use such additional ACT tools as PLAN^® and the ACT Assessment.

“EXPLORE plays a big part now,” said Julia Hains, Purdue professor of chemistry and director of the Science Bound program. “But these students are going to go much further, so we will use all of the ACT materials to help us with the data gathering that we have to do with these kids.”

Noeth’s Policy Research unit was established to study a range of national and regional issues related to education. The awards program helps his staff to do that. One of the first-year awards, for example, is now the subject of the latest ACT policy report. Quality Education New Jersey and Asbury Park High School in New Jersey had requested a “what works” review of the Baldrige K–12 school reform model. An ACT award supported a study and The Promise of Baldrige for K–12 Education was published in November.

For more information on the ACT Awards Program, contact Richard J. Noeth (319/337-1293).