The Spring of 2015 will be the first year Alaska will implement the new high school graduation requirements as defined by HB 278 and the Governor’s Education Opportunity Act. It requires all grade 11 students to take a College or Career Readiness Assessment (CCRA) to earn a high school diployma in Alaska. All districts must offer WorkKeys and either ACT or SAT testing. At this time, KPBSD is going to support both the WorkKeys and the ACT during the school day. The SAT may be taken on a Saturday with a voucher.
Please review the document, “Which Test Should I Take,” to find out more information about these tests. Please use this to share with your students and parents regarding these tests and helping them to make a choce about which one they will choose to do; students can take more than one assessment, but it will be at their own cost. You should discuss these assessments with your students and parents, but IEP teams will not determine which assessment the student will take. That will remain a choise that the student and parent will make on their own and coordinate with the school counselor. This will be the same process as is occuring for any student. The counseling department is in charge of this process. At this time, we believe that non-diploma bound students who took the Alternate Assessment in 10th grade will not have to take any of these assessments.
October 15th is the deadline for Juniors to choose which assessment to use to meet the graduation requirement. That is also when the accommodation information will need to be given to the school counselor for submission to ACT or SAT.
The application for applying for accommodations for the ACT can be found here. The application process will be a collaborative effort between the school counselor, special ed case manager, and the student/parents.
More information about how to complete the application can be found here: http://www.act.org/aap/video/RequestingACT-ApprovedAccommodations