After years of high school admissions testing plagued with technical errors, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has pivoted to a more known quantity for this year’s 8th graders: the PreACT 9 Secure.
Listen: Carla Pedersen, Matthew Pietrafetta, and Andrew Ferguson break down the change to the PreACT 9 Secure in Episode 2 of our podcast, Beyond the Test.
Previously, CPS was using a test called the High School Admissions Test (HSAT) but released relatively little information about it other than that it was taken online, an hour long, included Reading and Math, and was provided in a variety of languages. Academic Approach students even reported odd questions like “What is the average temperature of a refrigerator?” appearing on the test multiple years in a row.
For these reasons, we are relieved that CPS is replacing the HSAT with the PreACT 9 Secure as the Selective Enrollment test. Not only because it is a more reliable test, but also because we know how to prepare students for this test. Additionally, we know that the preparation for this test is useful beyond test day—well into high school and college academics.
What’s different about the PreACT 9?
The PreACT 9 Secure is a slightly shorter version of the ACT test that students will encounter in their junior year for college admissions. It incorporates English (focused on grammar and writing skills), Math, Reading, and Science. Most of the discourse around the test has focused on a few elements:
- It’s longer. This test is more than twice as long as the HSAT.
- It’s got Science and Grammar/Writing, whereas the HSAT only focused on Math and Reading.
- It’s only available in English (though CPS representatives note that students taking the HSAT in their native language underperformed compared to English Learners testing in English with accommodations).
And while all of that is true, focusing on just those elements won’t help students prepare effectively. The PreACT 9 Secure actually provides an opportunity for this year’s 8th graders to engage in meaningful preparation for this test (rather than just guessing at content) that will support them long after the October test date.
Preparing for the PreACT 9 is…a good thing?
The PreACT is longer, yes, but that means students will have to build their endurance and ability to engage with longer, more complex texts. Where else will they have to work that muscle? High school!
Students preparing for the Reading and Science sections of the PreACT will learn how to efficiently and effectively make meaning out of complex content: how to grasp big ideas, how to sort out an author’s goal, how to contrast disparate opinions on a single topic, and how to incorporate data presentations into text-based information.
Students aren’t just skimming here, either; they are becoming critical thinkers. That Science section? It’s assessing science literacy and reasoning—and in today’s world of complex scientific topics like climate change, health research, and artificial intelligence, our students need to be well equipped with critical thinking and reading skills to understand the massive amounts of information at their fingertips.
Preparation for the PreACT will also involve becoming a faster, more agile problem solver and creative thinker. The timed nature of the test rewards students who have developed the skills to be creative problem solvers, balancing accuracy and efficiency in generating strategies rather than relying on rote memorization. Yes, mathematical fluency is important; it is necessary but not sufficient. Students must also become creative math problem solvers.
The English section values writing that is clear and concise; students preparing for this test report improvements in their other academic pursuits. We surveyed nearly 5,000 students in our test preparation classes last year, and the results speak for themselves. 87% of students learned strategies for the test, and 80% of our students went into test day more confident than when they started. But perhaps just as excitingly, half of our students reported that their test prep class was also immediately helpful in their other high school classes.
Ok, so what?
In many ways, the high school admissions process can be as, if not more, stressful than the college admissions process: students can only take the qualifying test once, and spots are incredibly limited. By shifting perspective, though, we can identify some clear opportunities for students in preparing for the PreACT 9 that will benefit them long after they have moved on to their high school of choice. The prepared student will not only be confident and capable on test day, but well into high school and college.