Special to The Pee Dee Post
ROCKINGHAM — High school juniors across North Carolina have prepared for the ACT on Tuesday, marking the state’s third year in requiring schools to administer the college placement test.
The exam analyzes each student’s proficiency in Reading, English, Math and Science Reasoning.
To prepare, officials at Richmond Senior High School examined previous testing data to determine weak areas for its students. They are then having teachers incorporate those refreshers into lesson plans both as bell ringers or end of class summations.
“Colleges want certain scores,” said Joseph Moree, assistant principal at Richmond Senior High School. “So, we’re spinning our wheels, thinking about what we can do to meet these students’ needs.”
In addition to classroom work, each of the school’s 435 juniors have had at least two hours and fifteen minutes of school time to access March 2 Success, a free site with ACT practice tests and sample questions.
Computer labs are open both before and after school for ACT prep work, and all students can access March to Success at any time on their home computer.
Richmond Senior High School’s goal is to change the culture surrounding the test, letting students know how serious the ACT really is when factoring in their future.
“We’re not talking about growing kids 10 to 15 points,” said Moree. “We’re talking about growing kids two or three points because that will open up so many more possibilities for them.
But, how is all this test prep affecting students?
“It has really prepared me because it offers passages and types of questions that we’re going to see on the ACT,” said RSHS junior Mary Catherine Coltrane.
Classmate Gregory Stormed agreed, adding “some of us get really nervous, so this is building us up, letting us know how we should be preparing.”
Indeed, no Richmond Senior junior can say that come Tuesday they won’t know about the ACT.
“We can’t take the test for them,” said Moree. “But, we’re going to prepare them to our utmost ability so they’ll be able to perform to the best of their ability.”
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