c

“Changing the conversation…” Instructional Change –  Align to standards  Set higher expectations  Rigorous coursework  Assess  Data driven intervention

College and Career Readiness System 8th–9th Grade Score Scale: 1—25 8th–9th Grade Score Scale: 1—25 10th Grade Score Scale: 1—32 10th Grade Score Scale: 1—32 11th–12th Grade Score Scale: 1—36 11th–12th Grade Score Scale: 1—36 Longitudinal Assessments 9th – 12th Grade Instructional Improvement 9th – 12th Grade Instructional Improvement Instruction Characteristics of all three assessments English, math, reading, science, optional Writing Test (ACT only) Career and Educational Components Needs Assessment Plans and Background Information Interest Inventory High School Course Grades Information EOS Educator’s Guide Course Objectives Instructional Units End-of-Course Assessments Formative Item Pools

Research The Foundation of ACT

The ACT National Curriculum Survey

ACT program and solutions  Data systems - a collection of data and managing of the data –  our system is intuitive – empirically derived – you may choose to throw other pieces in to the system of evaluating data - but ACT solutions provide the baseline.  Longitudinal Assessment :  Only curriculum-based, research-validated system available  Increases readiness for college or a career  Provides link between scores and skills  Promotes college enrollment, persistence, and success  Built on a common score scale to measure academic progress from grades 8 through postsecondary  Familiarizes students with postsecondary options through common career and educational components  QualityCore  Based on empirical research  Helps improve college readiness for all students by ensuring high school courses are focused on high standards aligned with college/career readiness

Example: Mathematics College Readiness Standard ACT’s College Readiness Standards

TestCollege CoursePLANThe ACT 8th Grade9th Grade EnglishEnglish Composition MathAlgebra ReadingSocial Sciences ScienceBiology EXPLORE ACT’s College Readiness Benchmarks

Aligning Standards to Practice  Align Standards in each subject area to practice (by score range):  Identify what is/is not common practice in current curriculum  When are students introduced to standards  Expectation of when students should reach standards  Score ranges should be seen as stepping stones in development of curriculum – with goal to have students meet or exceed college readiness standards identified as ‘college ready’ in each subject

Curriculum Alignment Requires:  Formulate then connect questions to ‘Program of Study’ and content.  Identify rigorous content: “ What does rigor look like to you?”  ACT’s answer to rigor is QualityCore  Developed from ACT research  Not every "Algebra II" course teaches Algebra II  The quality of all high school core courses matters  High grades may not mean a student is college ready  All students should have the opportunity to be college and career ready

 Looked for schools that prepared students for success in college (2 straight years)  Prepared traditionally under-represented college students  Worked with 69 teachers in 10 schools On Course for Success Study

Rigor … “… coursework that makes students ready for entry level courses in postsecondary education and for entering the workforce. ”  The Minnesota Private College Council, Fund and Research Foundation

Rigor…  The rigor of QualityCore is communicated through Educator Resources, not just examining the Course Standards.  …the language of the individual ACT Course Standards do not do all the work of communicating the rigor of QualityCore courses. For that, we would point to the Educator Resources. For example, the Instructional Units not only include the requisite content and skills, but also include research-based teaching behaviors that will actually translate to rigor in the classroom.

College Readiness Standards Benchmarks National Curriculum Survey Postsecondary expectations Secondary instruction High Achieving Schools Courses, Practices, Materials QualityCore Course-specific knowledge and skills Best Practices Development

 Provide professional development resources, tools and opportunities to teachers and leaders – New format!   Customize instruction to the needs of specific classrooms, schools, and districts QualityCore

 Preparation for the ACT  Limited to “college prep” students  A replacement for Advanced Placement ® courses  Designed to be a full curriculum QualityCore is not…

 English 9, 10, 11, 12  Algebra I  Geometry  Algebra II  Pre-Calculus  Biology  Chemistry  Physics  U.S. History Available Courses

 Course-specific college readiness skills  End-of-Course assessments  A live formative item pool for benchmark assessments  Instructional resources  Implementation support QualityCore consists of…

Educator’s Resources Provide conceptual view of rigor Provide ways to inject rigor into courses Assist in planning

Educator’s Resources include: Course Objectives/Standards Course Descriptions/Syllabus Course Outline and Instructional Plan Model Instructional Unit Guidelines for Developing Units Test Blueprint

Student Report