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Standardized Assessments

ACT ASPIRE

The Middle School will administer the ACT ASPIRE standardized assessment to all middle school students in the spring.  This is a new assessment program from ACT which measures a student’s subject knowledge in English, math, reading, and writing.   Measuring student’s learning from year to year with this assessment will help MCA identify gaps in learning, strengths and weaknesses for each individual, and effectively evaluate our curriculum.  The ASPIRE replaces the EXPLORE test previously given to 8th grade students and will be used at MCA in place of the Stanford Achievement Test beginning in April 2015.

IOWA Algebra Readiness Assessment

The math program at MCA offers students the opportunity to take pre-algebra in 7th grade and high school algebra in 8th grade.  Placement into either or both of these classes is based upon several measures of the students’ math aptitude and achievement.  The 6th and 7th grade students take the IOWA Algebra Readiness Assessment in class near the end of the year to provide insight into the individual student’s ability to think abstractly and in algebraic terms.