Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Explore testing

The Explore is being replaced this spring by the Aspire

http://www.act.org/products/k-12-act-explore/



ACT Aspire will replace the current ACT Explore and ACT Plan programs.

"ACT Explore and ACT Plan will be available ONLY for the remainder of the 2013–2014 testing year and will not be available after June 2014. ACT Aspire will be available in April 2014 and will meet your college readiness assessment needs moving into the future. ACT is fully committed to providing you with the tools and support needed to migrate successfully to ACT Aspire."

Wonder what affect this has on DYS applications in the future. We were hoping to use Explore next year for ds application.

I assume they will set an aspire score and then take it. We plan on my son taking it next year too

From what I read though, it doesn't appear to be out of level testing any longer. They begin Aspire in 3rd grade now.

Our oldest is still young... and it's been a long time since I did the early testing, , so forgive me if this is way off base...

When I clicked through, it seemed at first glance similar to MAP and, as such, as if it would still provide out-of-level stats. Is this not the case and/or was the info provided by Explore more helpful than the out-of-grade comps one gets with MAP?

I first heard about the switch in April; it seems they are going after grade-level assessments trying to get state testing contracts for common core assessments. It's a huge market, and the College Board won't be far behind with their own assessments for state's to adopt.

I haven't heard anything about what the talent searches will do for students below 6th grade (those in 6th grade and above can still take the ACT or SAT).

Thanks for finding this news. We'd been planning that DS would take the ACT Explore as a 3rd grader in early 2015, but that won't happen now, clearly.

So some questions arise. What is the new test? Is there a way to use this test series as an out of level test? Can your Xth grader take a test designed for Yth graders? Or will they perhaps have an "adaptive" test that gets harder/easier with correct/incorrect responses so that an advanced kid can "work their way up" through grade levels until they get to their true level and can show what they know? (DS takes the "Scantron Performance Series" tests twice yearly, which is adaptive in this way, but it is just on the computer at home so it's not an official proctored result.)

I suppose we can wait to see what the Talent Searches, DYS, etc. recommend for out-of-level academic testing for youngsters who want to show they are several years advanced and/or want to see where they are, but who are not yet ready for ACT or SAT.

It would be good to find out.

On the other hand, maybe we don't really need this tesing that much anyway.

Have you had your DS do SAT questions, 22B? Depending what you want the test to do, this might be an option. I had a thread about taking it very young here. (For us, the moment passed without us actually doing it, and it now looks pointless, but ymmv!)

I just spoke with an ACT worker on the phone and she said that for talent search the explore will still be given through 2014 as an extension.

She is not sure what is going to happen after 2014...they may continue to use the explore or they may transition over to aspire. It hasn't been worked out.

She also mentioned that some states have extended using explore for another year. Some areas will make the transition and some will be extended.

I am on this lady's email list now and she will send me updates.

DS8 just finished grade 7 maths (pre-algebra). I was thinking he should go through the Alg1/Geom/Alg2 sequence first before trying SAT or ACT maybe in about 2016, and the Explore test was to be a warm up and check up before that. There wasn't any strong reason to attempt the tests before covering the relevant courses, but come to think of it I can't actually remember if there was a really good reason for doing these tests even then. I think maths competitions are more significant. Also, it's getting time to do some maths other than these shallow mainstream courses.

No hurry of course! But the stuff you hear about needing alg 1/geom/alg 2 to do the SAT is rot, fwiw.