Education

SAT redesign complicates testing switch

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By JOSH THALL
Capital News Service
LANSING — Educators are working to make sure students are prepared to take the SAT when it becomes the new state test for high school juniors, and that colleges are ready to evaluate the results. Early this year, Michigan awarded the College Board a $17.1 million three-year contract for the SAT to be the state-administered college entrance exam starting in 2016, replacing the long-used ACT. The move was in-part a money saving decision, as the bid from the College Board was over $15 million less than the bid from the ACT over the three year period. At the same time the state is making the switch, the SAT is being reinvented to align better with the national Common Core standards Michigan has adopted for its education system. College admissions officials said the switch will not dramatically affect they way applicants are judged; many schools have accepted both ACT and SAT scores for years and rely on other measures as well.

Education

Community colleges seek ways to better prepare students

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By LACEE SHEPARD
Capital News Service
LANSING – Almost half of students entering community college find themselves unprepared, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, and new strategies are being formed to better equip students for success. Forty-two percent of students were not ready for the regular courses, said GAO, an investigatory arm of Congress. As a result, they were required to take developmental classes. There are multiple ways to test college readiness, said Mike Hansen, president of Michigan Community College Association. Typically the ACT test is used to measure knowledge, and many community colleges are finding a large majority of their students are not “college ready” in most subject areas, he said.