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Pretests for ACT get rave reviews
By Denise Dick
LORDSTOWN
Regis Fitzgibbon wishes his son had the benefit of two ACT practice tests the way his younger daughter does.
“I just think he could have done much better,” the father said.
His son, a freshman at Penn State University studying computer engineering, did well, but he believes the benefit of the ACT Explore, which affords students the opportunity to take two practice ACT tests, will allow his daughter to do even better. His daughter is a freshman at Lordstown High School.
Lordstown is one of 19 school districts in Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana and Ashtabula counties where the Eastern Ohio P-16 Partnership for Education brought the ACT Explore program.
P-16, started by the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, formed to try to close gaps between different levels of education from preschool through college. It’s based in Warren.
Eighth-grade students in the program take a test that, like the regular ACT test for older students, covers English, math, science and reading. Students’ performance on that test shows their respective strengths or weaknesses in those areas.
By providing school districts with data about how students performed on the tests, those districts can see if there’s an area where a significant number of students didn’t fare well, said Stephanie Shaw, P-16 executive director. Schools can tailor instruction to address that.
The test also gets students thinking about their careers with a career-exploration element, she said.
Principals, guidance counselors or teachers meet with students to review the test results and help them determine the classes they should take to prepare for a field of study.
“One of the things the state is pushing for is career and college readiness,” said A.J. Calderone, principal at Lordstown High School.
The ACT program through P-16 is helping with that, he said.
The program involves two tests before the ACT that students take and include for application to colleges. The first, ACT Explore, kids take in eighth grade, while they take the second, called the Plan, as sophomores.
“It also gives a predictor score” of how a student will do on the upcoming test, Calderone said.
“The Explore gives a score for the plan, the plan predicts the score on the ACT — assuming students keep preparing for it.”
Estell Liming, whose daughter and son are in eighth and ninth grade, respectively, at Lordstown, said her children both hope to pursue careers in pharmacy.
“They break down the information and tell the kids, based on how they did on the test, areas they would excel,” Liming said. “For both of my kids, the test said they would do well in pharmacy so that was reassuring to them.”
From a parent’s perspective, the test provides information about that crucial college-entrance exam. That alleviates some of the panic parents may experience, worrying about whether their child will score in the targeted range, she said.
Fitzgibbon said the test has helped his daughter.
“What it’s done for my daughter is she’s very aware of the importance of it,” he said.
She’s already taken the first test and will take the second in the fall.
Calderone and the school’s guidance counselor met with parents to explain the data contained within the tests and their meaning.
“If I was a first-time parent, I think the benefit would have been much higher,” Fitzgibbon said. “It gives you an awareness that you don’t [otherwise] have.”
Calderone said the test offers useful information on many fronts.
“Our ultimate goal is to give that test to students in eighth grade and again in 10th grade and create that longitudinal data,” the principal said. “It will help kids know where they are and plan courses accordingly, and we will use the data to guide instruction.”