Educators at Iola Middle School plan to use a little TLC to get students prepped for eventual college admission tests.
In September 2010, the Kansas State Department of Education made two tests available to every eighth and tenth grade public school student with the intention of preparing them for ACTs, the standardized test used by all four-year American universities for admissions.
The ACT precursor exams — Explore and Plan — are built and formatted in the same fashion as the 52-year-old college-readiness test, but on a graduated scale of difficulty. That means that Explore, administered to the middle school students, and Plan, taken by the tenth-graders, can and often do require up to three hours to complete.
Last December, instead of simply administering the test when the students arrived for the day and then having them go back to their typical routine, the IMS staff did their best to simulate what a student would experience when they took the ACT as a junior or senior in high school.
“Usually when high schoolers go take the ACT, it’s on a Saturday morning out at the college. Last year we allowed those eighth graders to make it a very special day,” said IMS Principal Jack Stanley.
“A sit-down breakfast” was served to the 85 students with parents and IMS staff serving as waitstaff, Stanley said.
“Then they went to their testing rooms … and did the three-hour test. Once that was completed, we served lunch. When lunch was completed, if they had permission from their parents, they were done,” he said. Students without permission to leave were shown a movie and treated to snacks.
The approach yielded positive results. Eighth graders’ marks in all areas of the test — English, math, reading and science — were satisfactory or better.
In reading, Iola eighth-graders scored 15.9 compared to a 13.8 national average. In math they scored 17 compared to a 15.1 national average. The students saw similar results in English and science.
“If the state is willing to pay for it again, we’d like to put the same plan to work,” Stanley said.
Because about half of the 60,000 pre-ACT exams purchased by KSDE last year remain, the program has been rolled over, allowing the schools that administered Explore and Plan on the state’s tab in 2010 to do the same this year. However, those schools will be provided only the same number of exams as administered last year. At about $8.50 per exam, USD 257’s bill for giving 109 eighth graders the Explore and 93 high school students the Plan — 105 sophomores took it last year — is about $100.
A worthy investment for students and teachers, said IMS Councilor Stacey Crusinbery.
It’s invaluable experience, Crusinbery said of having opportunities to take an ACT-type test before the real thing.
“The students are going to do better (on the ACT) if they take the Plan and the Explore,” she said.
Having “predictor” tests helps the teachers assess the students more thoroughly as well, said David Grover, Iola High principal.
“Our goal is that we’re showing improvement for each kid,” Grover said. “The Explore is a predictor of how they will do on the ACT based at eighth grade and what kind of progress they should have made by that point.”
