Education

Nonprofit Announces No-Cost SAT Class for Muir Juniors

Published: Monday, February 13, 2012 | 8:37 AM

College Access Plan, a Pasadena nonprofit organization, says it has received funding from the Pasadena Community Foundation to provide 40 juniors at John Muir High School with a seven-week SAT preparatory course.

Students will participate in six hours of formal instruction from Study Smart Tutors, an SAT Prep company that partners with nonprofits and schools to design courses tailored to a specific population of students, particularly those with historically low test scores, the group said.

College Access Plan says its staff will provide an additional eight hours of follow up instruction, including practice tests, study sessions, and course homework assistance.

College Access quoted Alexia, a Muir senior who was one of 40 junior participants in last year’s course, saying that Study Smart’s facilitator, Jack, “was willing to help students out, and he fully understood the test.” She thinks that this year’s students, who will benefit from expanded program hours, are “lucky because they get more sessions, more time, and more opportunities to meet.”

The group says Alexia encourages this year’s juniors to “be prepared and do all the homework,” and she describes her experience in last year’s course as “awesome.”

The first session for this program will meet on March 1st, and students will gather for two hours every Thursday for seven weeks. The goal of this program is to provide students with the strategies and practice that will help them to increase their score potential at a school where students traditionally score below the national average in all three areas of the SAT Reasoning test.

College Access Plan is a Pasadena nonprofit that prepares underserved high school students to succeed in college. This year, College Access Plan will reach every student at John Muir and Blair Magnet high schools through in-class college readiness presentations. This fall, College Access Plan’s drop-in college advisement and topic-specific workshops at John Muir High School supported 45% of the senior class as they completed applications to four-year colleges and universities.

College Access Plan’s in-school programs and workshops through community partnerships are open and no-cost to all students who aspire to Dream Bigger about their futures.

For more information, call (626) 398-8500 or visit www.collegeaccessplan.org.

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