Caribou High School juniors aspiring to college and seniors, who have either received acceptance or desire to attend the University of Maine at Presque Isle, will have a unique opportunity to take early college placement testing in writing and math on April 6 at UMPI. The details of this program were worked out by the Caribou School System and the offices of academic affairs, advising and admissions at UMPI at a meeting in late January as part of a Partnership for College Success project.
"This early placement testing initiative is one whose time has come," said Mike McCormack, Partnership for College Success coordinator. "This as an ideal opportunity for participating juniors to have an early chance to practice these types of placement tests in a real college setting. Students will have more than a year to improve their skills in targeted tutoring sessions at CHS and also gain insight into the demands and rigor of college courses, specifically in math and English."

The 50 participants will be transported by bus to the university and, following the testing, will join university reps from the offices of admissions and academic affairs for lunch. Collaborative scoring of the writing prompts will be done by university writing faculty, Dr. Deborah Hodgkins and Karen McCosker, assisted by CHS English faculty members, Denise Levesque, Kirsten Albair and Tess Miner-Farra, CHS Transitions site coordinator and English-social studies tutor for the project. Robert Sprague, an UMPI adjunct science instructor, recently hired by the project to serve as math-science tutor at the Caribou site, will also assist with the math placement testing.

"This is another exciting part of this project," McCormack added, "that the tests will be scored collaboratively by university professors and high school teachers. This cooperation further enhances the dialogue between high school and college instructors and will give both parties a better insight as to how they can help the transition process."

College placement tests measure students' academic readiness for entry-level college courses and, wherever they choose to attend college, students inevitably face at least one or two such tests. Those who do not meet proficiency standards on these tests are placed into foundational or developmental courses, which are usually extra, required courses that do not count toward a degree.

"This early testing and follow-up tutoring will help insure that more students will hit the ground running as they transition to college," McCormack said. "College retention rates should also improve as more students enter college with sharpened skills and expectations."
This effort is one of several collaborative endeavors that will occur between the Caribou School Department and UMPI as a result of a major Nellie Mae Education Foundation grant awarded to the two schools. The Transitions project will initiate new programs at both institutions to improve preparation and success for Caribou students, wherever they pursue post-secondary education.