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Accuplacer Project
BATEC and its partner TechBoston are collaborating with TechPrep, School to Career, and the Boston Public Schools to address a major stumbling block for students pursuing higher education - the college placement test, also known as the Accuplacer. Because they are unfamiliar with this test and its format, many high school graduates who take the test place into remedial college level courses. These remedial placements impact the students' college attendance, financial aid, and success toward graduation.
Recognizing the need to address this issue, a pilot program was developed with Charlestown, Noonan Business Academy, and Madison Park High School to establish sites to administer practice tests to students. The goals of the pilot were to:- Inform guidance counselors and teachers who are not familiar with the test about the content and issues this test presents to their students
- Conduct a pilot program practice test to diagnose students' skills and gaps in English and Math while they are still in high school
- Use the test data to gather support from school leaders and relevant support services to create remedial English and Math resources for the students, i.e. tutoring and after school programs.
- Develop a model with relevant data points that could help inform successful college transition in this and other regions of Massachusetts.
Data from the pre-test pilot program showed that out of a total of 146 students tested; 2% placed at the college level for both English and Math; 3% scored at the college level for math (MAT 195); 6% at the college level for English (ENG 111); 58% placed at the Developmental Reading 090 level; 53% scored at the Developmental Math 090 level; 50% scored at the Development English 090 level; 12% scored high enough for an ENG 095/ENG111 split requiring them to complete a writing sample to help decide placement.
Accuplacer Teacher Guide
Accuplacer is a placement test used by colleges to determine the appropriate course placement levels for entering students. Many high school graduates who take the Accuplacer test place in remedial college level courses. The poor test scores have an impact on the students, college attendance, funding, and graduation rates. BATEC and TechBoston collaborated with Boston Public Schools' School to Career Office to develop an Accuplacer Guide for Math and English teachers. The guide is a content study comparing MCAS, SAT and Accuplacer tests. It is designed to assist Math and English instructors recognize the parallel skills required for these three tests. It will include description of the tests, practice samples, comparison of the tests, teacher resources, and classroom activities. With the release of the guide, the goal is to design professional development opportunities for teachers so they can integrate these skills in their subject reviews; thus, assisting the students with the test preparation.
For more info contact: Jibril Solomon @ 617-590-4908 or jsolomon@techboston.org
