National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC)

The NCRC is a standardized test that is designed to assess workplace employability skills in a person. It comes from the makers of the ACT, a standardized test used for college admittance, and is being readily utilized at Woodward Academy.

Once a month, 10-15 students take the three, 45 minute tests and can earn a bronze, silver, gold, or platinum rating if they pass. About 80% of students at WA who have taken the test have earned one of these ratings. Samantha Sperling (School Counselor) and Jon Shelness (Educational Liaison) have been certified to be proctors of the test, and it has served as a good portfolio building component for students.

The three individual tests are in Applied Mathematics, Locating Information, and Reading for Information. The assessments measure "real world" skills that employers believe are critical to job success, and the test questions are based on situations in the everyday work world. After receiving their certificate, students are encouraged to use it in interviews for employment. Past students have used it and reported back that they truly believe it helped them secure employment. So far, the test has been administered 6 times on campus, and will continue to be utilized in the future to help students transition away from WA.