Growth to Standards Model
In a Growth to Standards model, student progress is monitored with respect to an external criterion—in our case, the ACT College Readiness Benchmarks. The Growth to Standards model directly addresses the question “Has the student gained enough?”
In the example below, the Growth to Standards model is applied to a fictitious 8th grade student. His score is below the 8th grade ACT Explore® Benchmark in mathematics, and his goal is to reach the ACT College Readiness Benchmark in grade 12. At each future grade level, one can determine if he is growing enough to reach his goal.
The Benchmarks for ACT Explore (grades 8 and 9), ACT Plan® (grade 10), and the ACT® college readiness assessment (grades 11 and 12) are given in the table below.
| Subject Area | ACT Explore Benchmark Grade 8 | ACT Explore Benchmark Grade 9 | ACT Plan Benchmark Grade 10 | ACT Benchmark Grades 11/12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | 13 | 14 | 15 | 18 |
| Mathematics | 17 | 18 | 19 | 22 |
| Reading | 16 | 17 | 18 | 22 |
| Science | 18 | 19 | 20 | 23 |