“Power Hour” – every day at lunchtime, students at Steele Early College High School can get help in classes, college and career advisory assistance, and further preparation for the PSAT, SAT, and TSI Assessment, all supported by MasteryPrep college readiness resources.
“Power Hour is our one-hour commitment to give students support to graduate high school, and a major component is dedicated to tutoring students on the PSAT, SAT, and TSI, helping them not only achieve benchmark scores to graduate, but also perform high enough to earn scholarships,” said Todd Rogers, Principal of Steele Early College High School.
"We are in year two of MasteryPrep implemented into those standardized testing resources; we also do test boot camps and extra time within our curriculum classes dedicated to test prep. The incorporation of MasteryPrep products has become an integral part of our culture and everyday processes to prepare students for college, workforce, or military – whichever road they choose."
Steele is one of four high schools within the Northwest Independent School District in North Texas, along with Byron Nelson, Eaton, and Northwest, totaling approximately 7,000 students. Within 234 square miles, Northwest ISD – which has “a vision of empowering learners and leaders to positively impact the world” – serves more than 29,000 students across 31 elementary, middle, and high schools, providing educational services in the northwest corridor of Dallas-Fort Worth.
Northwest ISD uses MasteryPrep college readiness and professional development resources for the PSAT, SAT, and TSIA2, including TSIA2 Mastery, one of MasteryPrep’s latest products that provides a comprehensive, review of every assessed standard on the TSIA2 and includes a TEKS alignment for every lesson. With a TEKS and TSIA2 standards alignment for each chapter, teachers can select relevant curriculum that takes their students from struggling to succeeding.
“TSIA2 Mastery is an engaging workshop that breaks the test down into manageable bites and helps kids go into testing feeling more relaxed and prepared,” said John “Bobby” Morris, NISD Director for College, Career, and Military Readiness.
All four Northwest ISD high schools were recently selected among the 2022 “Best High Schools in America” by U.S. News and World Report. Seven Northwest ISD high school seniors were named National Merit Semifinalists in the 2023 annual competition. The district has a 95 percent graduation rate, average SAT score of 1170, and average ACT score of 26, according to Niche.
A major facet of the district’s commitment to post-secondary success is the preparation it provides students through seven academies and 16 additional programs of study within the Northwest ISD Career & Technical Education program. Through career awareness, preparation, exploration, and training, high school students can attend academies and earn certifications in the likes of media production, biomedical sciences, hospitality, cosmetology; earn college credit hours; and even become Microsoft Office specialist experts, certified in Office programs.
“We know our students are going to graduate; the question we must ask as administrators is ‘What’s Next?’ and what resources and opportunities do we have to provide as a high school and district to prepare all of them for the future,” said Rogers. One critical area, Rogers said, is assisting those students who are on the borderline of achieving the necessary benchmarks.
“In the past, if students took the test and failed, then they just took the test repeatedly. But now, with MasteryPrep, they can look at where they went wrong and better prepare for the next time. Having resources for our students to have something to help them prepare is meaningful.”
For example, on the SAT, students must score 530 on Math and 480 on English, so any student who has not reached those thresholds will have previous tests and scoring data examined by those subject teachers, receive extra help in testing weaknesses, then receive a comprehensive review of the lacking content.
“We measure and keep track of all our students’ testing data; we are data heavy here and intentional in everything we do,” Rogers said. “All our teachers are trained on the MasteryPrep resources, so MasteryPrep is that instructional piece and avenue to help our students be ready for that mandated SAT test every spring, or work on certain areas to get to a point where we feel they are TSI complete, and then as a TSI testing site, we can test them when they’re ready.”
Unpaid testimonial. Individual results may vary, and testimonials are not claimed to represent typical results. ACT score average and gain data courtesy of MasteryPrep client district and based on year over year ACT test data for the same cohort. All testimonials are real participants, and may not reflect the typical user’s experience, and are not intended to represent or guarantee that anyone will achieve the same or similar results.