RVA ACT Testing March 2024

As the school year is well underway, I know that many of you are starting preparations for the 2024 ACT. As our shared students enrolled in the RVA from our consortium districts test within their resident districts for the ACT, we wanted to provide you with all of the information you will need to make sure they are ready to test with you. Please be sure to share this information with anyone involved with organizing the ACT Testing in your district. And please don't hesitate to let the RVA know if you have any questions!

Consortium districts have access to the list of students enrolled in the RVA in their Student Information System (Skyward, Infinite Campus, PowerSchool, etc). Consortium RVA student lists can also be accessed on our Partner Portal. Please review your list of students currently enrolled in the RVA. You can also see if any students have IEPs, 504 Accommodation Plans, or are identified as EL in the portal to determine if ACT Accommodation or English Learner requests need to be made for them.

Consortium districts will need to request ACT-approved accommodations and/or supports for their RVA students through the ACT Test Accessibility and Accommodations system (TAA) for students with an IEP, 504, or are identified as an English Learner. The ACT Accommodations requests need to be submitted to ACT by January 12, 2024.

CONSENT TO RELEASE INFORMATION TO ACT

Please make sure to obtain consent to release information to the ACT for requesting accommodations for all RVA students. This form needs to be completed stating permission was received that allows you to share information with ACT. It has to be submitted before accommodations are requested.

Each of the RVA's consortium districts holds their students ' IEPs and 504s. However, if you have questions regarding which accommodations and/or supports students need, please be sure to reach out to the RVA High School's Special Education Team.

Sam Penry - RVA Director of Special Education (sam.penry@ruralvirtual.org)

Nicole Wolf - RVA Assistant Director of Special Education (nicole.wolf@ruralvirtual.org)

Carrie LeMahieu - RVA School Psychologist (carrie.lemahieu@ruralvirtual.org)

Jill Chasteen - RVA Special Ed Student Services Coordinator (jill.chasteen@ruralvirtual.org)

The RVA will provide students with a variety of options for ACT Test Prep. All RVA students are provided with access to an Odysseyware ACT Prep course. Staff also offer numerous online informational meetings and ACT Practice Sessions to students and parents.

While the RVA does offer quite a bit of ACT test prep, if consortium districts have informational meetings or practice sessions that they feel would be appropriate for their RVA students to participate in, please be sure to invite them!

Please be sure to contact all of the grade 11 students enrolled in the RVA from your district to notify them of the days, times and locations of the ACT meetings and tests. Also, please be sure to provide them with any other important ACT information pertaining to their district.

Consortium districts have access to their student's contact information within their Student Information System. Consortium district student rosters are also available on the Partner Portal. When in the enrollment portal, click on your district, then click on the Access View-Only Document button, then please scroll over to the tab titled "23/24 Full-timRVA Students."

The RVA will be sending out an email to the families of our grade 11 students enrolled from our consortium districts letting them know that someone from their resident district will be contacting them prior to March with information regarding the ACT test.

Materials for Paper Testing:

The consortium districts will need to check to make sure they have enough test booklets (multiple choice and writing portion) for the RVA students testing at their school. Usually, the additional tests that ACT sends for overage materials are enough to allow the RVA students to test. In addition, you will need to request accommodated materials for any accommodated testing students. However, if extra materials are needed, please be sure to submit an additional order prior to the additional materials order deadline.

The RVA will be sending you the materials we are able to provide including the barcode labels that we have, along with answer documents with the RVA ACT High School Code 500003, and Pre-Work booklets.

Please be sure to check your testing materials to ensure that you have everything you need. The deadline to order additional materials is Friday, February 23rd for the March 12th testing window.

Filling Out Answer Docs and Site Headers

We will send you answer docs pre-filled with the RVA ACT High School Code along with barcode labels. If these are misplaced prior to testing, please follow these directions for RVA students testing at your school.

For multi-district charters, in which the home school district tests the students with their general grade 11 population, the home school should administer the ACT to the grade 11 students enrolled in Rural Virtual Academy and enter the following ACT school code 500003 in Block K on each student’s ACT answer document.

If you need to bubble student information on the materials, please be sure to accurately bubble each student’s ACT student code from PearsonAccess in Block U on the ACT answer document. To find the student’s ACT student code, home schools and districts can contact the chartering district that has access to the student record in PearsonAccess, DPI OSA, or ACT at statetesting@act.org.

Shipping Materials Back to ACT

The consortium districts should follow the standard instructions for returning answer documents and additional test materials for the shared RVA students. Districts should ship the tests back under their own site header sheet.

For Online ACT Testing:

1. Please enroll your student(s) that will be doing online testing into your Pearson Access Next (PAN) portal.

2. Once the student is in your portal, the Reporting High School Code will need to be set to the RVA code of 500003 (this is the online version of Block K on the paper answer doc that indicates the student's high school)

To change the Reporting High School Code:

1. Select the student(s) from your student list in PAN

2. Under Tasks, select Create/Edit Students, then click Start.

This will bring you to the following page:

3. Under the Reporting High School Code - Online Only, enter 500003

4. Click Save

State statute allows parents/guardians the right to opt their child out of state testing in grade 11. This request may come at any time during the testing window. While the RVA highly encourages all high school students to participate in state testing, there are quite a few RVA parents/guardians who do opt their child out of ACT testing. The RVA will notify the consortium districts of any opt-out requests received. All students excused by parent opt-outs are marked as "not tested" students in school and district reporting.

Within two days of taking the ACT, all students testing need to complete the non-test portions of the ACT in their MyACT account. The RVA school counselor and advisors will work with all students to complete their MyACT required non-test information prior to the March 12th test date. If a student does not complete it by this date, please have the student complete it with you either before or after ACT testing.

RVA Students should take their ACT with the other students testing in their district. If a student is approved for ACT accommodations, consortium districts will need to provide them. However, there is an extended testing window for students with accommodations.

While the ACT results should be sent to the RVA, if they do get sent to the student 's consortium district, we'd appreciate if our partner district's could mail them to the RVA, as the RVA holds all student cumulative files.

Rural Virtual Academy

Attn: Kathy Alexander

624 College Street, Room 104

Medford, WI 54451

If you have any questions regarding RVA ACT Testing, please don't hesitate to contact us!

Sara Holewinski - RVA Principal

email: sara.holewinski@ruralvirtual.org

phone: 888-801-2666 ext 8825

Kathy Alexander - RVA Director of Special Education & Pupil Services

email: kathy.alexander@ruralvirtual.org

phone: 888-801-2666 ext 8827

Jill Chasteen - RVA Special Education Student Services Coordinator

email: jill.chasteen@ruralvirtual.org

phone: 888-801-2666 ext 8851