ACT prep: too much, too late

The Consortium on Chicago School Research has released the next study in their series on Chicago high schools, this one looking at ACT preparation. The ACT is now a required part of the PSAE, Illinois’ standardized test for high school students.

According to the report summary:

The majority of Chicago Public Schools students are not attaining the ACT scores they are aiming for, which they need to qualify for scholarships and college acceptance… CPS students are highly motivated to do well on the ACT, and they are spending extraordinary amounts of time preparing for it. However, the predominant ways in which students are preparing for the ACT are unlikely to help them do well on the test or to be ready for college-level work. Students are training for the ACT in a last-minute sprint focused on test practice, when the ACT requires years of hard work developing college-level skills.

The full report explores this in fascinating depth, looking at test score data in conjunction with interviews with teachers and students. This really stood out for me:

Most students believe that ACT scores are strongly determined by tenacity and practice. When students were asked in interviews what they were doing to prepare for the test, the most common response was that they were going to try hard… Student perceptions that tenacity, strategies, and practice are what matter most for test scores are reinforced by the large amount of class time spent on practice items, strategies, pep assemblies around the test, and motivational posters… Teachers also tend to believe that ACT scores are predominantly determined by test-taking skills—almost 60 percent believe so. More teachers believe that the ACT reflects testing skills than believe it reflects student learning in their classes.

The belief that tenacity and motivation are the keys to success is one of the most pervasive themes in American rhetoric, and there’s a great power in conveying that sense of self-efficacy to students. It’s also a convenient message for policy-makers and test-prep companies. It’s simple and it sells.

But if schools are serious about getting students ready for college, this report concludes, it’s time to turn the volume down on that message a little bit, and turn the volume way up on the importance of aligning middle school and high school curricula, aligning high school instruction to what colleges are looking for, and generally improving the quality and quantity of instruction in high schools.

More from the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun Times.

Full report here [pdf].

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