EPAS at
South Warren
High School
Dr. Debbie Powers
Debbie.powers@louisville.edu
EXPLORE®
PLAN®
and the ACT®
Educational Planning
and Assessment
System: EPAS
• The EPAS system provides a longitudinal, systematic
approach to educational and career planning,
assessment, instructional support, and evaluation.
• The system focuses on the integrated, higher-order
thinking skills students develop in grades K-12 that
are important for success both during and after high
school.
Educational Planning
and Assessment
System: EPAS
Four components form the foundation of EPAS:
–
Student Planning—Process through which students can identify career and educational
goals early and then pursue those goals.
–
Instructional Support—Support materials and services to help classroom teachers prepare
their students for the coming transitions. This component reinforces the direct link between
the content and skills measured in the EPAS programs and those that are taught in high
school classrooms.
–
Assessment—Student achievement is assessed at three key transition points in EPAS so
that academic progress can be monitored to ensure that each student is prepared to reach
his/her post-high school goals.
–
Evaluation—An academic information monitoring service that provides teachers and
administrators with a comprehensive analysis of academic growth between EPAS levels.
College
Readiness
Standards
• ACT defines College Readiness Standards as sets of
statements intended to help students, parents, and
educators understand the meaning of test scores.
• The standards relate test scores to the types of skills
needed for success in high school and beyond.
• The ACT is the only college readiness test for which
scores can be tied directly to standards.
additional information at www.act.org
College
Readiness
Benchmark
Scores
A benchmark score is the minimum
score needed on an ACT subjectarea test to indicate a 50% chance
of obtaining a B or higher or about a
75% chance of obtaining a C or
higher in the corresponding creditbearing college course.
EPAS Predictors
of Success
Test
EXPLORE
PLAN
ACT
Benchmark Benchmark Benchmark
College Course
English
13
15
18
English Composition
Math
17
19
22
College Algebra
Reading
15
17
21
College Humanities
Science
20
21
24
College Biology
EPAS: a sequential assessment system
EXPLORE®
PLAN®
ACT
EXPLORE®,
PLAN®,
and the ACT
Typically, students take EXPLORE in the 8th or 9th grade,
PLAN as 10th graders, and the ACT as juniors or seniors.
All three test you in English, math, reading, and science.
However, the material tested in each program gets more difficult.
This is why the top scores are different.
Program
Grade
Level
Composite
Score
Range
EXPLORE
8 and 9
1 to 25
PLAN
10
1 to 32
ACT
11 and 12
1 to 36
EXPLORE,
PLAN, & ACT
EXPLORE
PLAN
ACT
English
40 in 30 min.
50 in 30 min.
75 in 45 min.
Mathematics
30 in 30 min.
40 in 40 min.
60 in 60 min.
Reading
30 in 30 min.
25 in 20 min.
40 in 35 min.
Science
28 in 30 min.
30 in 25 min.
40 in 35 min.
EXPLORE®
your turn…
Take the provided practice test…do as much as you
have time on all four sample tests…
Work individually
You may write on the sample tests
Be sure to look at questions on all four tests
You have 10 minutes
Time is up!
EXPLORE
Table Talkuse the paper on your
table to summarize your
discussion points
Let’s debrief
What did you learn?
What advice would you give a
student?
As a teacher, what can you
incorporate in order to prepare
students for the EXPLORE?
Explore
sample
answers…
Once students have
their scores, then
what?
Once students have taken EXPLORE, they know much more
about their skills, career interests, and readiness for college.
They should ask themselves these questions:
 Does my high school course plan include challenging
college prep courses?
 What skills do I need to work on to be sure I am on target
for college?
 How can I learn more about careers that interest me?
EXPLORE Interpretive
Visuals
9/2009
PLAN
• Students have the opportunity to take the PLAN as
10th graders.
• There are four tests…
• Similar information can be gleaned from the PLAN
score report as the EXPLORE score report.
PLAN®
The English Test measures your understanding of standard written English.
• (Usage/Mechanics) punctuation, grammar and usage, and sentence
structure
• (Rhetorical Skills) your understanding of the use of strategy, organization,
and style in writing
• Consists of four prose passages each accompanied by multiple choice
questions.
The Math Test measures your mathematical reasoning.
• Ability to reason in math rather than on how well you have memorized
formulas or can do involved computations
• Tests pre-algebra, algebra, and plane geometry
PLAN®
The Reading Test measures your reading comprehension.
•
Focuses on referring to details in a passage, drawing conclusions, and making
comparisons and generalizations
•
Consists of three prose passages each accompanied by multiple choice questions: social
sciences, humanities and prose fiction
•
To answer the questions, you don't need to know information outside the passages,
vocabulary taken out of context, or rules of formal logic.
The Science Test measures your scientific reasoning skills, based topics in
biology, chemistry, physics, geology, astronomy, and meteorology. The test
presents five sets of scientific information, using three formats:
•
•
•
Data representation format (two sets) Graphs, tables, diagrams, etc.
Research summaries format (two sets) Descriptions of several related experiments
Conflicting viewpoints format (one set) Two or more interpretations that are inconsistent
with one another
Educational Planning
and Assessment
System: EPAS
ACT
• English 75 questions 45 minutes
– Measures standard written English and rhetorical skills.
• Mathematics 60 questions 60 minutes
– Measures mathematical skills students have typically acquired in
courses taken up to the beginning of grade 12.
• Reading 40 questions 35 minutes
– Measures reading comprehension.
• Science 40 questions 35 minutes
– Measures the interpretation, analysis, evaluation, reasoning, and
problem-solving skills required in the natural sciences
ACT
Your turn to try it!
•
•
•
•
Take the sample ACT tests
Be sure to look at questions on all four tests
Work individually
You have 15 minutes
Time is up!
ACTuse the paper at
your table to
summarize your
discussion
Let’s debrief
• What did you learn?
• What advice would you give a
student?
• As a teacher, what can you
incorporate in order to prepare
students for the PLAN & ACT?
ACT sample
answers…
EPAS: a sequential assessment system
EXPLORE®
Pre-season
PLAN®
playoffs
ACT
championship
When ACT scores come out it’s almost too late to intervene.
ACT.org says…
• If we do not address the identified needs of 8th
grade students, they will never attain the PLAN
and ACT targets.
Educational Planning
and Assessment
System: EPAS
EPAS focuses on a number of key transition points
that young people face:
– 8th/9th grade—Preparing for high school studies
– 10th grade—Planning and preparing for college and the workplace
– 11th/12th grade—Being ready for life after high school
ACT.org
or actstudent.org
Your new best friend!
Intervention
Rosters?
They are a starting point for
conversations about your
students.
For Students
•
•
•
•
Identify career and educational options
Establish goals
Determine courses needed to fulfill plans
Evaluate educational/career progress
• Homeroom teachers will pass back PLAN scores from
Fall 2010 to their homeroom students.
• You will have a power point to use that outlines some
important things to go over with your students about
how to evaluate their educational/career progress.
For Teachers &
Counselors
•
•
•
•
Effectively guide students
Deliver effective instruction
Evaluate student progress
Evaluate instruction
A focus group of teachers will begin meeting
Dec 2 in order to analyze student answers to
specific PLAN questions as it relates to our
curriculum
We will meet in our school teams
–
–
–
–
Look for trends in your collective data
Look for curricular gaps
Look for unnecessary overlap of content
Look for content that may be misplaced
Counselors will be meeting with students to discuss
College Readiness standards as well as meeting with
some 10th graders that are identified in our Early
Intervention PLAN Rosters…for example
– Students who made a 15 or lower but are interested in
pursuing post-secondary education
– Students who made a 16 or higher but are NOT interested in
pursuing post-secondary education
For
Administrators
• Document success in meeting academic standards
• Provide career and educational planning,
instructional support, assessment, and longitudinal
evaluation
• Verify student progress from grades 8 through 12
SWHS will give the EXPLORE to our current
9th graders beginning this year…then we will
have students scores as follows…
9th EXPLORE, 10th PLAN, and 11th ACT
How do we prepare our students?
– This is a marathon assessment…not a sprint
– Aside from content, do we help them understand the
format?
– Are classroom assignments blueprinted like EPAS items?
– Do we as teachers understand the importance of this?
Let’s get personal…
What did you learn?
How can you use it?