[Okepas] Fall 2006 EXPLORE and PLAN

[Brown, Cynthia]

Counselors and OK EPAS Contact Persons,

 

Spring is here and with it comes planning for the fall semester.  You
will soon be receiving your notice from ACT, Inc. to confirm your
information and order for fall 2006.  As you do your planning, there are
some things to remember as you consider your EXPLORE and PLAN testing
dates.

 

When your district decided to participate the Oklahoma State Regents
EPAS project, an "authorized official" agreed to the following:

*       Administer both EXPLORE to 8th graders and PLAN to 10th graders

*       Administer both assessments to all students (optional only for
those who are developmentally or physically disadvantaged)

*       Test within the window designated by OSRHE (State Regents)

*       Return completed answer sheets to arrive in Iowa City by the
required date

*       Practice fiscal efficiency in the ordering and caretaking of
materials

*       Pay shipping fees if express shipping is required as a result of
late ordering

*       Pay shipping fees for materials returned to ACT if the district
withdraws before testing

 

Most of you are complying with this agreement.  Something that concerns
me, however, is that some high schools are scheduling PLAN on the same
day as PSAT and encouraging some students to take PSAT and not the PLAN.
I also have heard that some schools give students the choice of taking
EXPLORE and PLAN.  Not only does this violate your agreement but it
leaves a huge gap in your data which virtually invalidates the data for
evaluating and planning curriculum and instruction.  

 

We seem to have failed to clearly communicate with some folks about the
many valuable ways of utilizing the EXPLORE, PLAN and ACT data in
reviewing curriculum and instruction as well as students' readiness for
college and the workplace.  One parent expressed concern that her
daughter was encouraged to take PSAT and had missed out on the wonderful
career guidance information provided by the PLAN.

 

The testing window for this fall is August 14 through October 18.  As
you plan for the 2006-2007 school year, please remember that your
district has agreed to "administer both assessments to all students".

 

The Student Preparation staff is available to provide professional
development for educators at your site, meet with a group of
administrators, a team of teachers, or other groups to meet your
individual school needs.  If we can be of assistance to you, you are
welcome to contact Cari Lousch (north of I-40), clousch at osrhe.edu; Matt
Higdon (south of I-40), mhigdon at osrhe.edu or me, cbrown at osrhe.edu.  Our
staff assistant is Risa Johnson, rjohnson at osrhe.edu, can help you with
many questions as well.

 

Cindy

 

Cynthia Brown, Ed.D.

Director of Student Preparation

Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.onenet.net/pipermail/okepas/attachments/20060424/f55113f6/attachment.html