Students

do well

on Test Day

WOODSTOCK— The Woodstock Academy recently completed its third year of the School Test Day program, which provides a College Board assessment to each student at no cost to students or families. Testing this year produced very positive results.

The SAT/PSAT changed in 2015-16, so The Academy has two years of data to compare all students’ individual growth through the SAT Suite of assessments: PSAT 8/9 for Freshman, PSAT for sophomores and juniors, and SAT for seniors. This October, The Academy added the new SAT Essay for seniors and an SAT-practice essay for grades 9-11 that is scored by Academy teachers using the College Board’s anchor papers and rubrics.

The benefits of the testing program include:

* Yearly data on each student in specific areas including reading, writing, analysis in social studies, analysis in science, algebra, advanced math, and statistics; 

* The ability to use the data to make programmatic and curricular adjustments to meet students’ needs; and

* Preparation for the state assessment (The SAT replaced the Smarter Balanced Assessment for grade 11 in 2016)

The Academy’s students scored above the state average in all areas at all grade levels. Seniors were 60 points above the state on the SAT. On average, Academy students gained between 58 and 68 points since last year (Grade 10: 58 points, Grade 11: 68 points, Grade 12: 59 points).

“Our School Test Day has been a positive experience here at The Academy,” said Dr. Michael Harten, Academic Dean. “Students, families, and faculty all see the many opportunities it provides—opportunities for practice, opportunities for useful assessment data to measure growth over time, and opportunities to start thinking about post-high school plans. The School Test Day will continue to provide data to help us improve our academic program and will continue to open doors for our students after graduation.”