How to increase student ACT/PSAE scores?

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Permalink Reply by Adam Jankovich on September 21, 2010 at 8:44am

I am currently teaching at a high school with an enrollment of 630 students and as a math department we are looking to increase our students ACT/PSAE scores. We are open to suggestion on how we could do this.

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Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Bergman on September 24, 2010 at 2:46am

I also teach high school math. I like to get the ACT practice books and give my students about 10-20 of the questions at a time. The catch is that I take the multiple choice part out of it. This forces the students to think through the questions and use their math skills to answer the questions (rather than be tempted to just guess). After they have been given adequate time to work through the problems, we discuss the correct answers/process. As we go, I talk about different "tricks" to look for since it is a multiple choice timed test. I have had great success with this. Usually by the end of their junior year my students are satisfied with their math score on the ACT. I hope this helps! Best of luck to you!

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Permalink Reply by Tamara on October 18, 2010 at 5:25pm

That's actually a really good strategy. Unfortunately, throughout all my years of school, none of my math teachers actually took the time to *really* teach us. Most of them would just throw an equation at us and provide one explanation: "Plug and chug." I'm sure they were just trying to teach us to think critically on our own, but that's a little difficult to do when you don't even understand what you're supposed to be thinking about.

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Permalink Reply by Don Grimshaw on September 25, 2010 at 9:46pm

I am the principal of a high school of 1900. We address the ACT competencies in multiple ways. We provided PD for all core area teachers on integrating ACT type competencies and assessments into everyday lessons, we also provided the teachers training on ACT coaching techniques for testing strategies. We added an ACT preparation class that helps kids focus areas of need and practice implementing testing strategies. That class uses materials from Cambridge publishing. On Fridays we have a 10 minute advisory activity that addresses weaknesses identified with PLAN testing. Our counselors meet with our 10th grade parents and review PLAN results, discuss preparation for college, and discuss ACT registration procedures. Administratively, I track the scores from the monthly reports from ACT and we focus specific preparation for kids with scores of 28 or above, 19-21, and 22-27. At times we may call students in that have not retaken the test and prompt them try the test again.