ACT, PLAN, EXPLORE, and WorkKeys Seminar Oakland Schools October 22, 2008

Notes by Stan Masters, Coordinator for Instructional Data Services, LISD

1.  Julie McDaniel, Oakland Schools, showed many examples of schools getting the student results of EXPLORE into the hands of the students.

2.  For those of you looking at EXPLORE, it can be administered to either you eighth grade or ninth grade students. Ernie Bauer, Oakland Schools, used many of his graphs related to the 8th grade correlations. His advice is that you should define the purpose of the assessment before deciding to give it to the eighth grade or ninth grade. One purpose that he advised against was just giving it to ninth graders because “they don’t have any tests to take” (except the middle school social studies MEAP).

·  Stan’s comment – If you want to measure students and use the data to inform your students’ strengths and weaknesses before high school courses, use the EXPLORE in grade 8.

3.  Julie made many references to Rick Stiggins work on the keys to quality assessment. She stated often that ACT provides a sound assessment design.

·  Stan - For a PowerPoint reference to use, go to the LISD Curriculum Website (www.lisd.us/curriculum) and click on either of the presentations I made last year (MAMSE or MCSS) to see slides about these. Also, a workshop on Classroom Assessment for the 21st Century is available second semester at the LISD.

4.  There are two documents that you may want to use that show ACT, PLAN, and EXPLORE alignment with Michigan’s GLCEs and HSCEs. These are found at http://www.act.org/education/statematch/ You can use these as you develop your curriculum alignment work, backmapping from the tests.

·  Stan – If success on the ACT, PLAN, EXPLORE, and WorkKeys are part of your criteria for your “power standards”, this is a good document. It is much better for dialogue among teachers than most, if not all, textbook alignment documents.

5.  Ernie shared data regarding the relationship between EXPLORE, PLAN, ACT, and WorkKeys.

·  He stressed percentile ranks as a good way to explain how “good” a score is communicated on these norm-referenced tests.

EXPLORE / PLAN / ACT / WorkKeys
Range of scores / 1-25 / 1-32 / 1-36 / 65-90
25th percentile / 12 / 14 / 17 / 75
50th percentile / 14 / 17 / 20 / 79
75th percentile / 17 / 19 / 24 / 83

·  Using the profile reports from EXPLORE, he demonstrated the multiple measures of data that we have been talking about regarding the data warehouse.

a.  Demographic - grade level and gender – 8th grade boys

b.  Student Learning – EXPLORE test scores – reading

c.  School Processes –After High School Plans -Career Path

d.  Perception – Reported Needs – improve reading speed and comprehension

Stan- What would be the question to develop for DataDirector?

·  Ernie explained the research into the College Readiness Benchmark Scores that I have shared with you and have used as criteria for several DataDirector reports. The research followed students taking their first college courses (English Composition, Algebra, Social Sciences, and Biology), collected their grades in those courses, and compared them to their ACT scores. Students who reach these benchmark scores can be expected to succeed in their first year course and stay in school.

·  The College Readiness Benchmark Scores for EXPLORE and PLAN are based off the ACT Benchmark Scores. Ernie shared a document that shows the predictive range of the composite scores for PLAN based upon EXPLORE composite scores, as well as ACT composite scores based upon PLAN composite scores. The assumption is that the students would continue to have sustained academic effort throughout high school. The chart begins on the next page…

If the student composite score on EXPLORE was… / …then the predicted student composite score on PLAN would be … / If the student composite score on PLAN was… / …then the predicted student composite score on ACT would be …
5 / 10-13 / 11 / 12-15
6 / 10-13 / 11 / 12-15
7 / 10-13 / 11 / 12-15
8 / 10-13 / 11 / 12-15
9 / 10-13 / 11 / 12-15
10 / 11-14 / 12 / 13-17
11 / 12-15 / 13 / 13-17
12 / 13-16 / 14 / 14-18
13 (English) / 14-17 / 15 (English) / 15-19 (18)
14 / 15-18 / 16 / 16-20
15 (Reading) / 16-19 / 17 (Reading) / 17-21 (21)
16 / 17-20 / 18 / 19-23
17 (Math) / 18-21 / 19 (Math) / 20-24 (22)
18 / 19-23 / 20 / 21-25
19 / 19-23 / 20 / 21-25
20 (Science) / 20-24 / 21 (Science) / 22-26 (24)
21 / 21-25 / 22 / 23-27
21 / 21-25 / 23 / 24-28
22 / 23-27 / 24 / 26-30
23 / 24-28 / 25 / 26-30
24 / 25-29 / 26 / 27-31
24 / 25-29 / 27 / 28-32
25 / 27-30 / 28 / 29-33
29 / 30-33
30 / 31-34
31 / 33-36

·  Ernie also showed why the MDE did not use the College Readiness Benchmark Scores as the “cut” scores for the MME (which is now 1100 - scaled score). This shows how you can “read” the MME scores as a “norm-referenced”.

a.  Stan – So “how good” were your students’ scores?

MME Math
(1100) / MME Reading / MME Writing / MME
Science / MME Social Studies / MME ELA
College Readiness Benchmark Scores / 22 / 21 / 18 (English) / 24
Percentile Rank / 63rd / 53rd / 37th / 80th
25th Percentile / 1079 / 1088 / 1075 / 1085 / 1107 / 1082
50th Percentile / 1098 / 1108 / 1094 / 1105 / 1126 / 1101
75th Percentile / 1115 / 1127 / 1112 / 1122 / 1141 / 1120

·  Ernie also identified the predictability of success (probability of 50) on the MME using EXPLORE and PLAN scores.

MME Math / MME Reading / MME Writing / MME Science / MME Social Studies
EXPLORE Composite / 16 / 14 / 17 / 17 / 12
PLAN Composite / 18 / 16 / 19 / 19 / 14

a.  Stan – These can be used as criteria for DataDirector reports to identify students who need additional academic support.

·  Ernie showed that students should have a goal of “5” on the WorkKeys assessments. This has a strong relationship with MME proficiency (scaled score of 1100).

a.  Stan – WorkKeys scores can be analyzed in DataDirector. They are found in the MME Assessments.

6.  I sat with a teacher from Oakland County. He pointed out that Utica uses the PSAT to identify students who would be successful on the AP courses

a.  Stan - SAT/PSAT/AP are part of the College Board – different organization than ACT. The PSAT is also used to identify students as National Merit Scholars. SAT, PSAT, and AP are assessments that are more closely aligned with academic standards in subject areas.