The state Department of Education is handing out tens of thousands of study guides for its standardized graduation tests to ninth-graders, hoping that students use the personalized copies during winter break and for the next year to prepare for the test.
The 84,000 study guides are crafted individually for each student using their eighth-grade scores on the Arizona's Instrument to Measure Standards test, which they must pass to earn a high school diploma.
"They're trying to intervene before they get to high school, to help them target their areas of deficiency," said Joe O'Reilly, executive director for student achievement support in the Mesa Unified School District.
The state paid McGraw-Hill, the company that provides the tests, nearly $1.5 million to create the ninth-grade guides, Education Department spokeswoman Amy Rezzonico said. The ninth-graders getting the guides will use them to help prepare for the AIMS test they will take in the spring of their sophomore year.
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"I think part of the idea was that ninth-graders don't think they have to worry about it because they don't take the AIMS this year," said Kathy Black, the Mesa district's director of assessment. "Part of this was to say, 'You need to start thinking about this now.' "
Many teachers are using the guides in homeroom or in study sessions, even though they know some students will take them home and never look at them again, Black said.
The guides were previously only given to students who failed the test. But educators hope the early intervention will help more students pass.
"So if you didn't do well in algebra, (the guides) do algebra," Rezzonico said. "It's also an individual study planner that can create a study schedule for a teacher or tutor."
