Arizona district gets a college readiness boost with Paper™

Administrators in the district said they hoped YUHSD’s partnership with Paper™ would help enhance personalized learning for area high school students while providing extra academic support in a flexible way.

Getting students ready for life after high school

Researchers from Paper wanted to explore how the Educational Support System (ESS) helped YUHSD students prepare for what’s ahead. To learn more, they conducted a quasi-experimental study that investigated the academic progress—as measured by PreACT®* scores—of about 5,000 students throughout the 2022-23 school year.

Keep in mind that when students take the real ACT®, just a few points can make a huge difference in terms of their competitiveness for some scholarship opportunities and college admissions decisions.

Here’s what our researchers found.

The benefits of the Review Center

Compared to students who didn’t use the ESS, the 189 learners who took advantage of Paper’s Review Center earned English PreACT® scores that were, on average, 1.85 points higher.

Among one demographic, this effect may have been even more pronounced. Researchers found that spring PreACT® English scores were 2.55 points higher on average for a group of 67 English learners who used the Review Center, compared to other English learners who didn’t.

Live Help’s impact

For nearly 300 students who turned to Live Help looking for math support, there was an average improvement of 0.5 points on their math PreACT® scores compared to students who never used the service.

The researchers acknowledge that there are some limitations to this study. Namely, the variation in group size between users and nonusers could impact the initial results, as could student self-selection bias and the variety of implementation practices undertaken by teachers.

The career and college readiness impact of Paper’s ESS

Life after high school can lead in many different directions. Students who want to pursue a college education on their way to a rewarding career have to stay focused on meeting the admission criteria it takes to get into the program of their choice.

[READ: “Paper tools to support your career and college readiness efforts”]

The findings in this report demonstrate a strong relationship between Paper usage and PreACT® exam scores. 

“In this study, we found that Review Center and Live Help participation carried a statistically significant impact on performance for a key college entrance exam,” said Head of Impact Drew Madson. “That difference has the potential to open many more doors of opportunity.”

Want to learn more about what this study revealed? Read the complete YUHSD impact report today.

*ACT, Inc. is the registered owner of the ACT trademark. Paper is not associated with or sponsored by ACT, Inc.