January 12, 2018
Dear Parents,
As you are aware, this past fall your 8th grader was administered the PSAT 8/9 exam. This two-hour exam, sponsored by the College Board, is a middle school assessment that is aligned with the PSAT and the SAT. The purpose of PSAT 8/9 is to give middle schools and high schools, as well as students and parents, insight about your student’s academic progress. It also provides feedback on skills where your student excels and areas that may need improvement in order to get your student on the right path for successful post high school experiences.
The PSAT 8/9 exam is broken down into three sections: Critical Reading, Writing Skills, and Mathematics. Our school has received the results, which we are sending home with the students today. More information about the program can be found online at I encourage you to visit this site to assist you in understanding the benefits of this test. In summary, you can look at your student’s scores with these concepts in mind; the PSAT 8/9 is designed to work with PSAT/NMSQT and SAT:
- Measures a progression of skills
- Supports skill interventions from middle school through high school
- Reports results in a consistent content and format
- Assesses the same content areas: reading, writing and mathematics
- Assesses the same skill categories at a grade-appropriate level
- Aligns to Common Core, state standards and NAEP standards
- Provides a progression of benchmarks at each level
If your student’s score is not what you would like it to be, remember this is a test that was administered to 8th graders. Many times 8th graders do not take testing as thoughtfully as we would like them to. If this is the case, this may be a great time to discuss the importance of taking tests seriously so that scores, as much as possible, reflect students’ true ability. If this is not the case, this is a great time to remind students that practicing all subjects is important. Many students practice his/her favorite subjects, but avoid more difficult ones, consequently not increasing his/her ability in that subject. The good news is that PSAT 8/9 lets us know what a student needs to work on before taking the SAT for college placement.
If you have additional questions please feel free to contact either the guidance counselors, the 8th grade administrator Sandra Alford @ or me. We look forward to the results of this joint venture and how it can help your students prepare for college.
Sincerely,
Dr. Carole Brink
Principal
Dickerson Middle School