PreK-12 Market Headlines
Carnegie Corporation Awards $1 Million Grant to ACT for Initiative To Improve College and Career Readiness
ACT —Thursday, December 17, 2009
IOWA CITY, IOWA—Carnegie Corporation of New York has awarded a $1 million grant to ACT, Inc. for an initiative designed to help increase the number of students who are ready for college and career when they graduate from high school.
The Carnegie Corporation grant money will help support the Rigor & Readiness initiative, which ACT and America’s Choice have partnered to create. Rigor & Readiness is a college and career readiness solution for sixth through 12th grades with the singular mission of preparing all students to be college and career ready in academic achievement, academic behaviors, and career and educational planning. It includes a coherent system of high standards and aligned instruction, assessment, safety nets, and professional development.
The Rigor & Readiness initiative is designed to create and advance school change by building and supporting high-achieving, self-sustaining schools with scalable, replicable systems.
“ACT is extremely grateful to Carnegie Corporation of New York for their support of this important initiative,” said Cynthia B. Schmeiser, president and chief operating officer of ACT’s education division. “Rigor & Readiness will provide schools and districts with the tools to ensure that all of their students graduate from high school ready for college and career without the need for remediation.”
One key goal of the Carnegie-funded aspects of this initiative will be to backmap ACT’s College and Career Readiness Standards to the middle school level and to the Common Core State Standards. ACT is a leader in defining, assessing, and improving college and career readiness and an active lead partner in the Common Core State Standards initiative, which is currently underway under the leadership of the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices.
The Rigor & Readiness initiative’s curriculum frameworks, instructional materials, assessments, and professional development will be aligned to the Common Core State Standards, resulting in an academically rigorous core curriculum in middle school and high school.
ACT’s aligned system of academic assessments—EXPLORE, PLAN and the ACT—allows educators to monitor students’ college and career readiness from middle school through high school. These assessments are a core component of the Rigor & Readiness longitudinal data system, which Carnegie funding will also help to build.
This system will allow educators to keep track of student progress, diagnose students’ strengths and weaknesses, improve school and district practices and provide students with differentiated instruction and targeted supports. All of this information will be available to schools and districts via an electronic portal, along with additional information and support designed to help them use the Rigor & Readiness solutions effectively to improve student success.
The Rigor & Readiness assessments and supports are aimed at helping students from a holistic perspective by targeting academic achievement, academic behaviors and career and educational planning behaviors. As part of this whole student approach, Carnegie funding will help build a set of behavioral monitoring scales and a protocol for using these scales along with other assessment results to provide academic behavior supports and career and academic planning.
Finally, the Carnegie funding will assist in building the professional development needed to help teachers use the assessment data and provide the rigorous and differentiated instruction that is needed to sustain and enhance student success.
Carnegie Corporation of New York was created by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. For over 95 years, the Corporation has carried out Carnegie’s vision of philanthropy by building on his two major concerns: international peace and advancing education and knowledge.
Founded in 1959, ACT is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping people achieve education and workplace success. ACT provides a broad array of assessments, research, information and program management solutions in the areas of education and workforce development. Each year, ACT serves millions of people – nationally and internationally – in middle and high schools, colleges, professional associations, businesses, and government agencies.
Contact: Ed Colby, ACT Media Relations, 319.337.1028, ed.colby@act.org
