The Academic Approach®

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The Chicago Tribune created a stir among parents of ACT test takers when it recently reported on the results of a study conducted at the University of Chicago. Unfortunately, the Tribune distracted from the study’s significant findings by both simplifying and sensationalizing the research under the catchy rhyme of a headline that reads, “Doubts cast on ACT drills. Study links cramming in class to lower skills.” The ACT issue was picked up by other media and led to a discussion on ABC News involving no less an authority on the topic than Academic Approach founder and CEO, Matthew Pietrafetta, who soberly contextualized and clarified how and where ACT test preparation fits into broader curricular goals.

The Consortium on Chicago School Research succinctly represents its key findings on its website: “ACT performance is directly related to students’ work in their courses. Incorporating the ACT into high school accountability is not an effective strategy for high school reform by itself, without accompanying strategies to work on instructional practice.” The Consortium’s findings make clear that ACT test preparation is effective only when it occurs within the context of a broader academic approach that recognizes the pedagogical necessity of foundational learning across the curriculum and over the course of a student’s school career. The Consortium articulates this point on its website where it calls for an “alignment of standards from K-8 to high school and from high school to college.” Clearly, the Consortium’s interest in understanding both pedagogical practice and accountability in Chicago Public School reform is both more fundamental and lofty than the Tribune article suggests.

Indeed, Elaine Allensworth, co-director of the Consortium and lead author of the report, echoes Academic Approach’s position when she states in an interview, “They think it’s all about gaming the test and learning test strategies, but in fact it’s not at all about test strategies; it’s strongly related to doing deep good work in classes. There’s no quick fix; everyone wants a quick fix, but it’s not there.” As she states in her executive summary to the report, “the ACT requires years of hard work developing college-level skills.”

The Consortium’s study relies on qualitative and quantitative data for a cohort of students who were CPS juniors in 2005 including test scores from eighth to eleventh grade, student transcripts, surveys, and multiple interviews of students and teachers at three Chicago high schools. The goal of this research is to help CPS, other urban districts and national policy makers understand what it takes to improve outcomes for urban and other at-risk students who now overwhelmingly aspire to college.