We have the Aspire Results. Now what?

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Earlier this school year our students began taking a new test called the Aspire. This test was designed to give students, their parents, and the school an accurate prediction of the student's future ACT score. As should be expected, some students did very well. We should anticipate more high ACT averages in Borgia's future. But more importantly, some students did not do as well as they might have hoped. What should we do about that?

While the ACT is NOT always a predictor of future success (I don't believe), it is a way for colleges to decide who to let in and who to give scholarships to. One of our goals should be to help students create as many post-high school options as possible, so that is one reason why the ACT is important to me...and that is why the Aspire is so important to me. If we can find a way to get ACT scores up, students will have more options after graduating from Borgia.

However, the Aspire provides us with more than an opportunity to help ACT scores. As any of these standardized tests should do, it gives us added incentive to learn the material presented in class. Hopefully, this knowledge will aid us in future out-of-class endeavors, if not in-class. But, because the Aspire is given to freshmen and sophomores, it gives us an even greater chance to affect positive change than the ACT does. We have time to help, and that's what I am writing about today.

The Aspire so helpfully tells a student whether he or she in "on target" for a college-ready ACT score, "close" to ready, or in "need of support." We are working through the results to identify those students who need support, and using the results to determine specifically what type of support the student may need. Beyond telling us that help is needed in English, Math, or Science, it tells us specifically that the student may need help in math with "Justification and Explanation" or in Science with "Interpretation of Data." We are going to use this information to provide students with opportunities to work on this material in Seminar and even in the summer. Students with needs should look forward to receiving letters this month detailing the options he or she has to improve. 

The best part about the Aspire is that it is an assessment with a "reassessment" option. Next year, our freshmen will take the same test again as sophomores. Our sophomores will take a similar test again as juniors (the ACT). Hopefully, with some extra work between tests, our students will be able to far exceed their predictions. 

Just as a weather man bases his predictions on science, we hope that we can perfect our science of educating students to forecast some big improvements in the future.

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