Maine School Districts Participate in Official SAT Practice All In Challenge

Over the past school year, the College Board challenged Maine’s rural and small schools to encourage their students to connect their College Board and Khan Academy accounts to receive a free, personalized SAT practice plan. Three schools earned awards and cash prizes for their participation: Hall-Dale High School, Washington Academy, and Lee Academy. Each won prizes ranging from $8,000 to $10,000.

A total of 15 Maine school districts participated in College Board’s Maine Rural and Small School Official SAT Practice All In Challenge. From those districts, nearly 700 new students linked their College Board and Khan Academy accounts to unlock their free, personalized practice plans to get ready for the SAT. Students in grades 9-12 have completed over 60,000 practice problems and logged well over 1,500 hours of practice.

Hall-Dale High School earned the $8,000 REACH Award: Growth for having the highest percent increase of linked accounts.

• Washington Academy earned the $10,000 Proof of Practice Award: Depth for having the highest percentage of students who practiced for 6 hours or more. The announcement was featured on the front page of the Machias Valley News Observer.
• Lee Academy earned the $10,000 Proof of Practice Award: Problems for having the highest average weekly problems per active student account. Coverage appeared on WABI.

Each of the winning schools hosted an assembly in May or June, where they received their award and heard remarks from local educators, as well as the College Board’s Patricia Doyle and Peter Sison.

The College Board and Khan Academy, a leader in online education, developed the interactive practice tools to help all students, regardless of income level or background. Official SAT Practice helps students prepare for the new SAT and college-level courses, by reinforcing what students are learning in the classroom and focusing on the knowledge and skills essential for college readiness.

Research shows that students who practiced 20 hours on Official SAT Practice achieved an average 115-point score gain on the SAT – nearly double the average gain among students who did not use Khan Academy. We also found that practice on Khan Academy advanced all students without respect to high school GPA, gender, race and ethnicity, and parental education.

Students can sign up for free at satpractice.org.

In partnership with the University of Maine system, the Maine Community College system, and the National Rural Education Association; Maine educators encouraged the use of Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy among their students and made incredible gains in their efforts to increase access to SAT and college readiness. The Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative provided funding.

While this year’s SAT Practice All In Challenge is complete, this is not the end of our partnership with rural and small schools in Maine. Congratulations to the participants and winners in this year’s challenge.