HSPT Information for Chicago Students

8th grade students looking to apply to Catholic high schools are required to take the High School Parochial Test (HSPT). This year, the exam will take place on Saturday, December 7th at 8:00 AM. Students will take the exam at their 1st choice Catholic high school (Loyola, St. Ignatius, Depaul, or Fenwick). Students can only apply to one of these schools. If a student is not admitted to one of these, they should have a second choice (unmentioned school) prepared. Any student pursuing a scholarship opportunity is required to sit for the exam at the corresponding school.

The HSPT covers both math and verbal topics including verbal analogies, logic, verbal classifications, quantitative skills, reading comprehension, vocabulary, and language. The exam is composed of 298 questions and will be in multiple-choice format. The exam will take approximately two and a half hours to complete. Students should be prepared to solve all problems without the use of a calculator. However, they may use scratch paper for calculations.

Chicago Catholic schools that require HSPT scores include the following: Brother Rice High School, Carmel Catholic High School, Christ the King Jesuit High School Preparatory School, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, Cristo Rey St. Martin College Prep, De La Salle Institute, Depaul College Prep, Fenwich High School, St. Francis de Sales High School, Holy Trinity High School, St. Ignatius College Prep, Josephinum Academy, St. Laurence High School, Leo High School, Loyola Academy, Marian Catholic High School, Marist High School, Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School, Mount Carmel High School, Nazareth Academy, Notre Dame College Prep, Our Lady or Tepeyac High School, Saint Patrick High School, Regina Dominican High School, Resurrection College Prep High School, St. Rita of Cascia High School, Trinity High School, Saint Viator High School, and Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart.

Kayley Horton, Tutoring Coordinator
kayley@testprepchicago.com
(312) 848-1266

Changes announced for the ACT

This week, ACT announced some significant changes to their test.

One of the major changes is that the science section will now be optional, giving students the choice to include on their test, similar to the optional writing test. Additionally, the new ACT will be significantly shorter. The core test, consisting of English, reading, and math, will be just 2 hours long and will have 44 fewer questions than the current version. The English and reading sections will feature shorter passages, making the test more streamlined, and students will have more time to answer each question.

Some aspects of the ACT will remain the same. The ACT will continue to be scored on a scale of 1–36, and students will receive a composite score (the average of the English, reading, and math scores) in addition to section scores. The test will still be available in both paper and online formats, and the optional writing section will still be offered.

The new version of the ACT will be introduced in Spring 2025 for students taking the online ACT on standard national test dates. Students taking the ACT during school-day testing will experience the new version in Spring 2026.

TPC will be updating our ACT practice materials to reflect these changes and ensure student's are well-prepared for the new test.

ACT Test Scores at a 30-Year Low

The ACT college admissions test scores for high school students in the United States have declined to their lowest levels in over thirty years, indicating a concerning lack of preparedness for college-level coursework. This decline has been ongoing for six consecutive years, with the trend intensifying during the years of the COVID-19 pandemic. The nonprofit organization responsible for administering the test, ACT, highlights the urgent need to better equip graduates for postsecondary success in both college and career paths.

The average composite score for U.S. students on the ACT in 2023 dropped to 19.5 out of 36, down from 19.8 the previous year. Scores in reading, science, and math all fell below the benchmarks deemed necessary for success in first-year college courses, emphasizing the concerning trend in student preparedness. Despite criticism of standardized testing for favoring wealthier students and disadvantaging low-income ones, ACT CEO Janet Godwin argues that these scores remain crucial for placing students in appropriate college courses and aiding academic advisors in providing adequate support.

While many universities have made standardized testing optional for admissions, with some, like the University of California system, not considering ACT or SAT scores even if submitted, the debate over the relevance and usefulness of such tests continues. Student perspectives vary; however, the decline in ACT participation suggests a significant shift in the landscape of college admissions, with potential long-term implications for assessing student readiness and academic success.

Anna Jordan, Tutoring Coordinator

anna@testprepchicago.com

312-848-1266

Proposed CPS Budget Adds Teaching Positions, Reduces Budget for 20% of Schools

According to a budget recently proposed by the school district, while the overall CPS budget will not substantially change, additional funds will be allocated to providing instructors in high-need schools.Teaching positions will be added especially to support English language learners and special education classrooms.

The proposal, which was released by the CPS administration, comes as the district continues to grapple with declining enrollment and a persistent budget deficit. School budgets will grow per student; however, due to declining enrollment rates, approximately 20% of CPS schools can expect to see a reduction in their budgets this fall.

With the expiration date for federal pandemic relief funding coming up in 2024, the long-term financial trends of CPS schools are unclear, but the new school year’s budget represents a shift away from enrollment-based funding. Although enrollment is still a factor, other needs are being weighted more heavily, such as student demographics and special programming requirements.

Anna Jordan, Tutoring Coordinator
anna@testprepchicago.com
(312) 848-1266

Overview of the Digital SAT

In the near future, students will only be able to take the SAT via a digital format. Last November, a select portion of SAT students were offered the chance to test out this format by taking the digital SAT. Among this group, 80% of students found the new test taking process to be less stressful than the paper version which was previously the standard. The College Board began offering the digital SAT to international students in March of 2023 and plans to fully implement it in March of 2024 for class of 2025 juniors (current sophomores).

The digital SAT boasts a number of benefits. Among these, the digital interface allows the test to adapt to each student. With an adaptive test model, each section independently adapts to the student’s level of ability, making the resulting score more reliable. Additional benefits include shortening the test-taking time period from 3 hours to 2 hours and making scores available to students just days after they take the exam. The digital SAT will also offer a range of online tools students may use at their disposal. These tools include an on-screen timer, elimination tools which allow students to cross out incorrect answers, and the ability to flag questions for review so that students can go back to check them.

The content of the test will remain essentially the same with minor format changes. For the math section, students will have 44 questions to complete in 70 minutes. Students will have access to a graphic calculator on the screen during this portion of the test. During the reading and writing section, students will have 64 minutes to answer 54 questions regarding reading comprehension and grammar. The digital SAT will make reading questions shorter and reinstitute sentence completion questions. Each section of the test will still be worth 800 points and students will continue to have access to a reference sheet for formulas. Altogether, the digital SAT looks to streamline the test taking process while adapting to the changing landscape of technology based assessments.

Kayley Horton, Tutoring Coordinator
kayley@testprepchicago.com
(312) 848-1266

Homelessness in the Chicago Public School System

A growing number of students in Chicago are currently struggling with having a permanent and stable home. As of December 2022, 13,000 CPS students identified as homeless, according to CPS’s “Students in Temporary Living Situations” program. However, according to the Chicago Coalition of Homelessness, due to some students not wanting to identify themselves and others being homeless but living in other students’ homes, this number is actually closer to 16,000. Notably, many students in these types of situations don’t qualify for public aid.

There have been many attempts to curtail this rise, to varying degrees of success. Tonti Elementary set up a “Care Closet” to have a place to keep donations from the community and charity organizations for students in need, and provides incoming students with free uniforms and a backpack stuffed with school supplies. 

The American Rescue Plan of 2021 raised the child tax credit to $3600 per child from $2000. Governor Pritzker also made a proposal in February of 2023 to raise the budget for homelessness prevention, increasing the funding that goes into Illinois’s Evidence-Based Funding program that awards funds to schools based on priority of need. The Chicago Teacher’s Union stated that the increases were insufficient, and stated that at least double the proposed amount would be necessary to make the changes necessary. The state budget should be finalized by May of 2023 when the spring legislative session closes.

Nate Hall, Director of Technology & Tutoring Coordinator
nate@testprepchicago.com
(312) 848-1266

Low Reading and Math Proficiency in CPS Schools

While CPS reported a record-breaking graduation rate in 2022, reading and math proficiency rates for students are a cause for concern, with only one fifth of high schoolers completing the subjects to a grade-level standard. These low proficiency rates have significant implications for students' future success, as they may struggle to keep up with coursework in higher grades or pursue advanced education or career opportunities.

According to 2022 data from the Illinois Department of Education, 55 schools reported zero students that were proficient in either math or reading. The causes of low proficiency rates in the Chicago Public School system are complex, but many attribute the decline to negative effects of the pandemic, including school closures and remote learning. However, proficiency numbers are only slightly lower than they were in 2019, so pandemic consequences only represent part of the picture. Other factors, such as growing levels of homelessness among CPS students, are also important to understand.

Efforts to improve proficiency rates in the Chicago Public School system are ongoing, with educators and administrators working to implement targeted interventions and programs aimed at supporting struggling students and improving academic outcomes. However, addressing the root causes of low proficiency rates will require a sustained and coordinated effort from stakeholders across the district and the broader community, including policymakers, community organizations, and families.

Anna Jordan, Tutoring Coordinator
anna@testprepchicago.com
(312) 848-1266