On July 11, 2016, the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) announced starting with the graduating class of 2018 ALL Ohio juniors will take EITHER the ACT or SAT each spring as one of their three diploma options. In addition to 20 state minimum course credit requirements, all students must meet ONE of the college and career readiness standards:
- Earning a cumulative 18 points on Ohio’s state end-of-course exams.
- Earning 12 points for industry and workforce readiness.
- Earning “remediation-free” scores on the ACT or SAT.
How will this work?
Each high school in the state of Ohio will choose between administering the ACT or the SAT; the state of Ohio is paying for this test administration. Not only does the local school decide ACT or SAT, but they can also choose between online testing and paper testing.
LEAP has done a fair amount of research as well as talked with both students and test proctors from early pilots of online testing; we firmly fall on the side of pencil-to-paper being the preferred method which, for most students, results in higher scores.
The optional writing portion of the ACT and SAT will not be given on the state testing. All Ohio public universities no longer require the ACT or SAT writing score starting with the class of 2017; however, some out of state colleges may. If this affects you or could (depending on college choice), you would want to plan to test with the optional writing test when you test on your own.
In Ohio, the test a school chooses and which method will dictate the timing of the ACT or SAT testing.
What are “Remediation-Free” Scores?
On the ACT, students must earn minimum scores of English 18 and Reading 22 as well as a Mathematics score of 22. On the SAT, the minimum scores are 430 on Writing, 450 on Reading, and 520 on Mathematics.
While the state will only fund one school-administered test, students may retest at their own expense to meet the minimum scores. Additionally, students don’t have to meet the minimum scores on a single test date but can pull their highest scores across multiple test dates. ACT and SAT research shows 57% of students increase their score on a second attempt, so LEAP always encourages students to plan to test at least twice which will increase college admission and scholarship odds. LEAP data shows an average increase of 3.4 points of improvement after students take LEAP test prep. We are waiting for enough data from the new SAT to be able to provide accurate improvements.
Prepping for Testing
The best preparation for great ACT and SAT scores is to take rigorous courses, study hard, and do well in school. Your teachers are teaching you the material that is tested on these tests. However, taking the LEAP ACT-SAT Essentials prep course BEFORE testing familiarizes students with test layout and provides strategies for tackling each part of the exam. We actually take THREE practice exams before you take the real thing! LEAP also offers individual tutoring to tackle not only strategies but also reteach course content on which you may be weak. Contact us for more information: info@LEAProgram.com