Superintendents, District Test Coordinators, and Career and Technical Education Directors,
The MDE has recently entered into an agreement with ACT to better coordinate the administration of the ACT WorkKeys assessment in public high schools. This agreement will benefit the state by leveraging the current legislative appropriation that provides for reimbursement to afford WorkKeys testing for students and to provide better pricing and servicing of the WorkKeys program within public schools. Some benefits in the agreement include:
- Support and Training: ACT will work with MDE to host webinars to communicate essential information about testing via paper or online.
- Dedicated State Testing Webpage: ACT will include WorkKeys on the state testing webpage. Districts will be able to use this webpage as a resource for information related to WorkKeys. www.act.org/stateanddistrict/mississippi
- Communication: ACT will provide communication to the district test and/or school test coordinator throughout the testing cycle.
- Cost Savings:
- The off-the-shelf price for ACT WorkKeys is $12.00 per assessment. The National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC) consists of three assessments. The total cost is currently $36.00.
- Under a statewide agreement, ACT has discounted the per assessment cost for all school districts, regardless of whether the district submits for reimbursement from the State or not. For spring 2021, the cost per student will be $11.00 per assessment for a total of $33.00.
- Data Collection: MDE will have access to WorkKeys data through RegiSTAR, which is an online repository; this includes student ACT WorkKeys scores as well as National Career Readiness certificate data. This will better allow the MDE to assess the benefits and utilization of the ACT WorkKeys assessment in our state.
The ACT will follow up this week with a communication to your district and or school-level ACT Testing Coordinator regarding next steps in registering as a participating location. If you have any questions about this agreement or the reimbursement program, please contact Wendy Clemons at wclemons@mdek12.org.