August 21, 2015
TO
LEA Superintendents
Charter School Directors
FROM
June St. Clair Atkinson
2015–16 ACT SUITE UPDATE
Information regarding the implementation of ACT Aspire Periodics in place of the ACT Explore for
8th grade students for the 2015-16 school year is provided in this memo.
Background
Since 2011-12, North Carolina has administered the ACT Explore to all
eighth grade students in October each year. Like the other assessments in the
ACT suite, ACT Plan, ACT WorkKeys, and the ACT, the North Carolina
General Assembly has funded the assessment. As many of you know,
2015-16 is the last year ACT Explore and ACT Plan are available from ACT,
so North Carolina will have to consider other options for 2016-17. This
situation, coupled with a price increase that would require additional funding,
has led to the decision to replace ACT Explore with ACT Aspire Periodics
for eighth graders in 2015-16. Very similar to ACT Explore, ACT Periodics
give student-level college and career readiness information to aid in
instructional planning and support.
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Why ACT Periodics
ACT Aspire Periodics are designed to measure student understanding of the
concepts and skills outlined in the ACT College and Career Readiness
Standards and many state standards focused on college and career readiness.
These assessments, like ACT Explore, provide students, parents, and teachers
with supporting data to determine subsequent instruction.
______________________________________________________________
ACT Periodics
Administrations
and Reports
The assessments measure shorter-term student progress in English,
mathematics, reading, and science. There are three assessments available for
administration anytime during the school year, but it is a local decision
whether to administer all three of the assessments or to administer only one
or two of the assessments. Also, the local education agency (LEA) and/or
school may decide when to administer as there is not a specified testing
window. The assessments are multiple-choice only and delivered online
only. With the online delivery, there is immediate analysis and reporting.
Reports are available for Student/Parent; Teacher/Group; School/District; and
Item Response/Analysis.
Additional information is available at
http://www.discoveractaspire.org/assessments/periodic/.
DIVISION OF ACCOUNTABILITY SERVICES
6314 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-6314 | (919) 807-3769 | Fax (919) 807-3772
AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/AFFIRMATIVE ACTION EMPLOYER
LEA Superintendents/Charter School Directors
August 21, 2015
Page 2
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ACT Profile
As part of the ACT Aspire Periodics, students will have access to ACT Profile
(http://www.act.org/profile/), ACT’s college and career planning selfassessments that help pinpoint students’ unique interests, values, and skills.
After completing the profile, student’s personalized results are populated onto
interactive career and major maps. The maps provide information related to
specific schools, majors, and careers. Students can use this information to
better understand the connections between their unique interests, abilities, and
values and potential education and career paths.
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Next Steps
Please note ACT Plan, The ACT, and ACT WorkKeys will continue to be
administered in 2015-16 as scheduled. Additional information on Act Aspire
Periodics will be provided to your test coordinators at the September 16, 2015,
Statewide Test Coordinators’ Meeting in Raleigh.
_______________________________________________________________
Thank you for your support and please contact your Regional Accountability Coordinator if you have
any questions.
JSA:TLH
c: Rebecca Garland, Deputy State Superintendent
Tammy Howard, Director, Accountability Services
Nancy Carolan, Section Chief, Testing Policy and Operations
Karen Hoeve, Section Chief, Analysis and Reporting
Hope Lung, Section Chief, Test Development
Regional Accountability Coordinators
LEA/Charter School Test Coordinators