ACT Academy (Spring 2020)

Sign-up Link

(Must log out of personal google account. Login with student KCS Google account)

Please submit form above by 4:30pm on Friday January 24th!!!

What is the ACT Academy and when is all of this going to take place?

The results our students get from the ACT Academy will be in direct relation to the time, effort, attitude and work ethic they put into the ACT Academy. They can have all of the resources in the world, access to the most amazing teachers, and the most encouraging parents in the school, but if they don’t make this a priority, they will not see the results they want. will get There are many extra-curricular activities and job-related days that will conflict with the Academy.

There are five parts to the program:

• ACT Registration – This takes time and includes:
• Gathering your information
• Go to ACT registration web-site
• Create an account
• Complete profile sections
• Choose test dates
• Choose colleges to receive
• UPLOAD YOUR PICTURE

*Deadline for participation will be Jan 24.

• Pre-Assessment - All students will take a practice ACT Exam in order to draw a baseline analysis to determine their strengths and weaknesses. This will take approximately 2 hours and 55 minutes (English - 45 min, Math - 60 min, Reading - 35 min, and Science - 35 min) and the turnaround time for scoring and analysis will be around five days, so we are going to break up the test into three days next week, so we can have them processed quickly.

Monday, Jan 27th                    ACT Math (9:30 – 10:50)

Tuesday, Jan 28^th               ACT English (9:55 – 10:55)

Wednesday, Jan 29^th                   ACT Reading (9:30 – 10:15)  

                                                ACT Science (10:20 – 10:55)

Thursday, Jan 30^th                        Makeup Testing

Because these subtests are vitally important, any student who does not complete all 4 ACT subtests by Thursday, January 30 @ 12:00 PM, cannot participate in the ACT Academy. If you know you will have an excused absence next week, please make arrangements for makeups in advance. Students will receive several analysis reports from their ACT Exam. The formative assessment report provides a comprehensive evaluation of student's strength and weakness by skills within each sub test. The report will prioritize and outline specifically where they will need to focus on each subtest.

• Set Goals - Goals may look very different from student-to-student, based on the number of times they have taken the exam and/or the area they want to focus. The analysis report will give each student a prioritized list of specific skill areas that need to be covered in order to improve their score. For a student who has taken their test for the first time, may have low scores in all four areas. We would recommend they focus on the top three skill areas for each subtest during the seven-week Academy window.

• Personalized Content

Once they receive their prioritized list of specific skill areas, students will have access to Pareto online content which is personalized to each student’s improvement needs. For example, a student who has scored a 18 on the ACT® and looking to improve the score by 3-composite point, will focus on ~300 questions instead of the 1000+ questions in a standard ACT® Prep book. There are short videos to help you refresh the concept being tested, questions to help them master the concepts, and a proficiency tracker to help both students and teachers understand if they are getting better with practice. Students must stay on track to complete at least 50% of the Pareto personalized content.

• Teacher Support

We will provide additional support by having teachers available who are contracted outside of the school day to provide tutoring and making sure the students are staying on pace with their goals. Teachers in Math, Science, English, Reading and Test-taking Strategies will be available to students every Saturday from 8 AM -12 PM starting 1/8 and ending on 4/28 (7 Saturdays) and every Wednesday afternoon from 4:30 PM - 6:30 PM starting 2/5 and ending on 4/1.

Tutoring Attendance Requirements

There are lots of questions about how often you have to attend these tutoring sessions. Again, the more time you invest, the greater results you will see in your scores. We do not want this so rigid that you have to attend every time the doors open, but this will not be a come and go as you please Academy. Obviously, you are trying to improve ALL four subgroup areas, your attendance is essential. The following requirements will be established as a minimum for attendance.

All students must be involved in tutoring at least 3 hours per week 

• ACT EXAM

The ACT Exam will be April 4th and will be administered at South-Doyle High School to make it easier on our students. This gives us seven weeks to prepare for the exam and increase their scores. Juniors will take the in school ACT Exam on March 31. All other students will take the National ACT Exam on April 4th.

Transportation Needs

We do not want transportation to be a barrier to a student’s participation in the ACT Academy. Any student who may need transportation for the tutoring sessions on Saturdays and Wednesday afternoons, must request in advance, so we can build a transportation route. Even if you only need it occasionally, you will need to sign up, so we can build a transportation route for our bus service. Once we set this route, it will be very difficult to add students.

Resources

• Pareto ACT Analysis
• ACT Goal Plan
• Prescribed Improvement plan based on areas of need
• Access to online content, questions, videos that focus on their area of need
• Official ACT Prep Guide (2019-20)
• 5 full-length official practice tests
• Additional online practice questions with answers / explanations