| EXPLORE and PLAN Pilot Year Lifts Off at WA-HI |  |  |  |
| Written by Alice Knotts | |
| Monday, 20 December 2010 | |
 The hard work of Walla Walla High School’s assessment team, administrators, and teachers backed by financial support from GEAR UP made it possible to pilot two new, “pre-ACT,” academic assessment tests at WA-HI this year. These tests, known as the EXPLORE and PLAN tests, are innovative, early high school, data tracking and evaluating examinations offered by the ACT testing services.  Kicking off the start of what is planned to be a five-year project, early this November fourteen hundred ninth, tenth, and eleventh graders successfully completed WA-HI’s inaugural administration of the tests. Teachers and administrators alike are highly optimistic the tests will improve educator awareness of WA-HI’s students’ needs. Part of the enthusiasm over the implementation of the EXPLORE and PLAN tests stems from the tests’ all-inclusive approach to evaluating students’ aptitudes, interests, and readiness for their college and career goals. The EXPLORE test is geared toward 8th and 9th graders, and will be taken by every WA-HI student in the fall of their freshman year. Taking the EXPLORE exam gives freshmen insight into how to best choose their high school courses. It also prepares them for college entrance, shows them what they need to do to succeed in taking standardized tests such as the ACT, and helps them begin exploring career paths that align with their skills and interests. Similar to the EXPLORE test, but designed to test the academic proficiency of sophomore students, the PLAN test consists of four academic achievement sections in which students are tested in English, math, reading and science. It also involves other key components such as a needs assessment section in which students gage their personal need for academic help, and a high school course and grade information section in which students list their current completed courses, those being taken at the time of the exam, and courses they are planning to take. The PLAN test helps sophomores further explore career options. Benchmark grade evaluations included in the testing services tell students how they compare to other students around the nation who have gone ahead of them into their fields of interest. The test even provides students with relevant college and scholarship information. The EXPLORE and PLAN tests are part of Walla Walla High School’s five-year plan to increase academic rigor and create a college going culture on campus. The tests give educators an effective way to document the academic growth and college/career readiness of each student as he or she progresses through high school. Thus these tests will play a significant role in promoting Walla Walla GEAR UP’s mission to prepare each WA-HI student for their best possible postsecondary educational experience and life-fulfilling career. | |
| Last Updated ( Monday, 20 December 2010 ) |
GEAR UP students are working together to pioneer the development of podcasting in education. Last spring GEAR UP sent Chris Plucker, one of Pioneer Middle School’s most dynamic and tech savvy teachers, to attend a daylong seminar on podcasting sponsored by TechReach in partnership with WSU GEAR UP. 
Students work together in small groups, each student voicing a different character. After completing the recording of their scene, the small groups divide into sub-groups. Each subgroup must then complete a section of the podcast by editing and producing their own audio version of that scene. Some of the movie scripts the students have chosen to use in their podcasts are The Incredibles, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Finding Nemo.