EXPLORE, PLAN, and the ACT

Measures students’ progressive development of knowledge and complex skills important for later education and careers in the same academic areas from grades 8 through 12  English  Mathematics  Reading  Science

EXPLORE, PLAN, and ACT Score Ranges Results are reported on the same score scale.  EXPLORE 9th grade (score range 1 to 25)  PLAN 10th grade (score range 1 to 32)  ACT 11th and 12th grade (score range 1 to 36)

College Readiness

What is College Readiness? “ a general sense to the level of preparation a student needs to be ready to enroll and succeed—without remediation—in a credit- bearing course at a two-year or four-year institution, trade school or technical school… college readiness also means workplace readiness” (ACT, 2004)

What is College Readiness? “No longer do students planning to go to work after high school need a different and less rigorous curriculum than those planning to go to college.” (Ready or Not: Creating a High School Diploma that Counts, The American Diploma Project, 2004, p. 8-9)

What is College Readiness? “ While not every student plans to attend college after high school, many of the jobs now being created in a highly technology- based economy require abilities equivalent to those expected of the first-year college student.

What is College Readiness? As Somerville and Yi (2002) point out: ‘Studies of the skill and knowledge that employers need in the workplace show with increasing clarity that their expectations look very much like those in higher education.’ ” (Crisis at the Core: Preparing All Students for College and Work, ACT, 2004, p. iii)

ACT College Readiness Benchmarks Through collaborative research with postsecondary institutions nationwide, ACT has established the following college readiness benchmarks:  College English Composition: 18 on ACT English Test  College Algebra: 22 on ACT Mathematics Test  Social Sciences: 21 on ACT Reading  College Biology: 24 on ACT Science Test A benchmark score is the minimum score needed on an ACT subject-area test to indicate a 50% chance of obtaining a B or higher or about a 75% chance of obtaining a C or higher in the corresponding credit-bearing college course.

English ACT What to expect…

The English test is a 75-question, 45-minute test, covering: Usage/Mechanics (53% - 40 questions) Punctuation (13%) Grammar and usage (16%) Sentence structure (24%) Rhetorical Skills (47% or 35 questions) Strategy (16%) Organization (15%) Style (16%)

Some other considerations… Spelling, vocabulary, and rote recall of rules of grammar aren't tested. The test consists of five prose passages, each one accompanied by multiple-choice test questions. Different passage types are included to provide variety. Some questions refer to underlined portions of the passage and offer several alternatives to the underlined portion. You must decide which choice is most appropriate in the context of the passage. Some questions ask about an underlined portion, a section of the passage, or the passage as a whole. You must decide which choice best answers the question posed. Many questions include "NO CHANGE" to the underlined portion or the passage as one of the choices. The questions are numbered consecutively. Each question number corresponds to an underlined portion in the passage or to a box located in the passage.

References Betraying the College Dream (Venezia, Kirst, & Antonio) as reported in Involving Families in High School and College Expectation, (2006, August). Education Commission of the States. Available at College Readiness Begins in Middle School. (Wimberly & Noeth, 2005) Available at Crisis at the Core: Preparing All Students for College and Work Available at On Course for Success: A Close Look at Selected High School courses that Prepare All Students for College Available at Ready or Not: Creating a High School Diploma that Counts. (2004). The American Diploma Project Available at The Toolbox Revisited: Paths to Degree Completion from High School through College. (Adelman, 2006) Available at