<p>North Carolina has always done a great job in supporting their public Colleges and Universities but has often accepted locally (and often politically) administered inferior public grade and High Schools. They have been trying to address this and now appear ready to require the use of the ACT exam as a standardized test to see how all High School students (and schools) are progressing. </p>
<p>Knowing what I do about NC schools, I love the idea of using the ACT because:</p>
<ul>
<li>As a nationalized standardized test it can't be designed and administered to show only the results that the administrators want to see.</li>
</ul>
<p>*By requiring the test to be taken 3 times during milestones in High School allows students, teachers and administrators to track progress and at the same time gives every High School student (including underprivileged students) exposure to one of the main tests required for college admissions...</p>
<p>I general I'm against more standardized testing because it often leads to "teaching to the test", but teaching to a test that measures levels of knowledge English, mathematics, reading, writing, and science reasoning sounds like a great idea to me...</p>
<p>Illinois, Colorado, Michigan and Kentucky require all high school juniors to take the ACT as part of their student and school progress assessments. Wyoming requires its students to take either the ACT or the ACT Workkeys (a jobs skills assessment test mainly for those not intending to go on to college).</p>
<p>I heard about this too. I don’t know if it’s a particularly good idea, though. I agree with the points you made, ncmentor. But it’s just one more test that students in NC will have to take. Isn’t there already enough tests?. EOGs, EOCs, PSATs, and now the ACT? That’s a lot of testing.</p>
<p>
This is what I like most about requiring the ACT. A lot of state tests are skewed, and they don’t give an accurate assessment of how each student is performing.</p>
<p>Arizona has been administering a highly controversial (politically loaded) test for several years. I have noticed the number of hs students waiting to take SAT or ACT until their senior year rising since they’ve been diverted into worrying over the state test and it’s attached scholarship potential (the carrot added after implementation of the test to make everyone learn to love the stick).</p>
<p>I accept that there will be a standardized test. I would love to have the ACT replace the state test; it would motivate students to think more about going to college instead of just “passing high school” and it’s nationally normed (never saw a benefit in comparing us to ourselves vs. getting the true picture of things).</p>
<p>I am happy to see that other states have embraced the ACT as their standardized test and that others are considering it. Gives me hope that AZ will jump on the bandwagon.</p>