MAPL 6001 Policy Project

Get Ready, Get Set, “ACT”: Helping MN High School Students Prepare for College Writing

Instructor Wy Spano

John Hakes

3/3/2011

Proposal Overview

The vast majority of high school and college faculty hold the opinion that high school graduates are not adequately prepared to do college-level writing. A 2006 survey done by the Chronicle of Higher Education showed that a mere 36% of high school faculty and 6% of college faculty nationwide agreed with the statement: “High school graduates are very well prepared for college writing.”

Despite these concerns about college readiness, Minnesota students headed for college currently have their writing skills assessed by a costly ($1.5 millon in 2010) and insufficient test instrument administered when students are in the 9th grade.

This proposal suggests that Minnesota’s public schools migrate away from the current version of the written Graduation-Required Assessment for Diploma administered since 1997-98 by the Minnesota Department of Education, and replace that test with the ACT-Plus written exam developed by Act, Inc. in 2005.

If a full transition is achieved, the change would provide the state with a superior test of each student’s writing ability at significantly less cost to the state. In addition, the new writing assessment would occur at a more appropriate time in a given student’s career—the end of the third, not the first, year of high school. This transition can be made with a minimal degree of state effort.

Seventy percent of all Minnesota high school students already take the ACT test whose currently optional writing component would be required under this proposal. The remaining 30% of the state’s students could pay the fee for the exam with the financial support of foundations, non-profits, family, school district, or by applying for a low-income exam waiver through ACT, Inc. itself.

Subdivision 1a of Minnesota State Statute Section 120B.021 permits school districts to declare a student meets a specific graduation standard when the local school board determines the student is participating in a course as rigorous as the corresponding state or local academic standard. This proposal seeks to amend that state law to include an ACT “writing benchmark” score as an approved way to meet the K-12 writing graduation standard.

Current Writing Assessment

Initialized during the 1997-98 school year, the existing Graduation-Required Assessment for Diploma Written Composition asks students to expand on a topical prompt in 3-5 paragraph essay. The “GRAD written” was administered to every 9th grader in Minnesota’s 334 public school districts at a cost of $1.5 million in 2010. To pass it , a “holistic” 3 on a 6-point rubric scale is needed. Scoring feedback to a student is limited to a number without comments, unless the student’s work is scored below a passing “3.” The single prompt offered to the testing candidate is typically a general, open-ended theme like this example from a 2007 version: What would be your dream job? Tell about that job and explain why it would be a good job for you.

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One would be hard pressed to find a Minnesota public school official, college English instructor, or public policy expert, who would suggest the current exam is sufficiently rigorous. Of six distinguished professionals interviewed at length for this project1:

1. Paul Carney, Program Coordinator, Ready or Not Writing Program Coordinator, Minnesota State Community and Technical College;

2. Lisa Larson, Legislative Analyst, Minnesota House Research;3. Liv Rosin, Curriculum Contact Teacher, Mounds View High School;4. Michael Coty, Instructional Strategies Facilitator, Mounds View High School;5. Mary Roden, Director of Assessment and Evaluation, Mounds View Public Schools; and6. Maureen Ramirez, University of Minnesota Board of Regents

None were enamored of the GRAD written composition, and each was intrigued by the prospect of raising the writing standard for high school seniors.

Merit of the ACT Plus Writing Exam

2005 marked the first year that ACT, Inc. unveiled a written component as part of its long-standing and widely-accepted college entrance exam. ACT’s written element is optional to the exam candidate, unless the college being applied to requires it, which the University of Minnesota system has been doing since 2006.2

Also a single-prompt exam (i.e. there is no other topic for a candidate to choose from) the ACT Plus Writing typically asks students to take a position on a educationally-related topic, such as whether a high school career should be extended to five years due to increasing extracurricular demands and community service requirements. Therefore, critical thinking skills are substantially more emphasized for the ACT essay than on the GRAD written composition.

Unlike the less rigorous GRAD written test, the ACT Plus Writing exam feedback includes a holistic score on a scale from 2 to 12, in addition to select comments about the essay from one of its readers. Taking the “ACT Plus” generates a Writing subscore that stands on its own, and that score is also factored into a Combined English/Writing score for a traditional section of the exam. Due to its optional status, ACT, Inc. does not currently have a benchmark score3 for the subscore, but the company’s accumulation of six years worth of data could serve as the basis for such an “ACT Writing” cutoff score, in order to meet the graduation requirement in a revised Minn. Statute Section 120B. 021.

Proposal’s Relationship to Previous Effort on Raising Academic Graduation Standards The educational experts interviewed for this project are not the first to see the value of increasing the academic proficiency standards for Minnesota high school students. In fact, a Minnesota

1In addition to these interviews, 4 additional people provided responses/ input for this project: Dirk Mattson, Director of Assessments, Minnesota Department of Education provided the $1.5 million cost figure on the current writing test instrument; Rachelle Hernandez and Norma Gutierrez, Admissions Counselors, University of Minnesota; and Rep. Carlos Mariani, Minnesota House of Representatives.2 A student’s decision to take the optional written component makes the exam an ACT Plus Writing, n an ACT.3 A score that indicates a high probability of success in a related, first-year college course

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Department of Education facilitated “College and Career-Ready Policy Institute Assessment Working Group”4 put forth an Access System Proposal during the MN 2010 Legislative Session.

Central to the Access Proposal advanced was the suggested codification of end of grade tests in the principal subject areas of language arts, algebra and biology. Additionally, this same group effectively authorized the ACT benchmark scores being used to provide an alternate means for meeting graduation standards, although it did not expressly do this for the writing proficiency graduation standard.5

Should the Education Reform Committee of the Minnesota House revisit this proposal in the 2011 session, it may want to consider a ‘concerning perception’ held by many public high school instructors under advisement— that such a proposal would require teachers to factor these high stakes tests into the course grades awarded to students, thereby causing instructors to have an additional layer of tests they are required to gear instruction toward.6

According to Instructional Facilities Coordinator Michael Coty, those same staff members with reservations on the full year-ending test proposal are amenable to recognizing an ACT benchmark as a valid graduation standard—an opinion likely to be reinforced through consultation with a wider base of ISF’s across the state.

The reason for this emphasis is that an improvement to the writing standard might be placed on a single subject bill track, since the more academically-comprehensive plan for standards-enhancement may once again face difficulty in gaining passage in the 2011 session.

Mounds View District Bellwether

In April 2011, the Mounds View School District, will be the first and only of the state’s school districts to administer the ACT PlusWriting to 100% to the approximate 900 high school juniors it serves. Mounds View’s decision to do so does not symbolize a race to the top that would leave certain students behind. Rather, district administration insists the move will create educational equity for its students, as the ACT emphasis is central to a plan for narrowing student achievement gaps that exist along racial, second-language learner, and disability lines.

A partnering 621 Foundation will be funding the class wide administration of the exam-- an external sourcing example which other districts may be able to replicate-- though there is an ACT fee waiver program available to income-eligible families residing in districts who cannot. Adequate preparation being vital to the success of ACT takers, Admission Possible is an organization that provides such services to families with economic challenges. One way or another, resources will avail themselves for districts opting to utilize the ACT Writing exam to satisfy the written graduation standard.

4 This proposal can be located at http://mnp20.org/working_groups/ccrpi.html.5 This is the source for the authority to develop an ACT benchmark score for writing, however, as suggested in the last paragraph of this paper’s initial “overview” section.6 A primary criticism of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is the pressure it exerts to teach to the test, thereby limiting the instructional freedom of districts and their personnel.

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To again reinforce the feasibility and value of all districts potentially migrating to the administration of the ACT Plus Writing exam, two points: (1) 70% of the state’s students are already taking the ACT exam statewide, which highlights the exam’s near institutionalization in Minnesota. (2) The state of Illinois, whose student population demographics are as diverse as any state’s, already administers the ACT exam to 100% of its high school juniors.

“Anything we can do to get students more college-ready is a benefit to them,” said Maureen Ramirez, a Regent for the University of Minnesota. “If a state like Illinois can figure out how to have all its students take the ACT exam, so can we.”

Prospective ACT Writing Standard Allies

As a bonus to the improved writing skills of students, Modifying Minn. Statute Sec.120B.021 to include the passing of the ACT Plus Writing as a method for meeting the written graduation requirement would likely meet a diverse set of political interests not accustomed to finding common ground.

In January 2011, Governor-elect Mark Dayton intends to charge his Commissioner of Education with eliminating $8 million of non-productive testing. By giving individual districts the latitude to rely on the ACT Plus Writing exam (whose exam fee is paid from non-state sources) in place of the state-funded GRAD written exam, the Department of Education could save $1.5 million toward this goal. Such a reduction would also be in line with a Republican-controlled Legislature interested in reducing the cost and administrative burdens of state government.

Further educational stakeholders who might find something to like include school district administrators, who could free up valuable instructional time by the phasing out of the GRAD written composition in favor of the ACT Plus Writing.

Given the contemporary educational emphasis being placed on formative assessments over summative ones7 (those in the ACCESS end of grade testing proposal developed in the 2010 legislative session are considered summative) the proposed amendment would also do nothing to limit the discretion of writing instructors to add formative assessments-- particularly since the ACT exam is already a widely administered—not a new—summative assessment.

Most importantly, families could rest assured knowing the upgraded writing standard would help students become more college and career ready with respect to their writing skill.

Recommendation

Amending Subdivision 1a of Minnesota Stat. Sec. 120B.021 to allow a public high school senior to meet the writing graduation standard with a score at or above a to-be-established benchmark score on the ACT Plus Writing Exam would enhance the college and career readiness of graduating Minnesota public school seniors.

7 Formative assessments are those that use new instructional methods and student feedback throughout the teaching and learning process, while Summative assessments are typically used to evaluate the effectiveness of instructional programs and services at the end of an academic year or at a pre-determined time.

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