<p>Apparently, every 11th grader in public school in the state. Are any other states doing this? If it replaces a slew of standardized tests that the students would otherwise have to take, seems like a reasonable alternative to me. </p>
<p>
[quote]
About 100,000 high school juniors in North Carolina's public and charter schools are sitting down to take the ACT college entrance exam. North Carolina's public schools are giving the test Tuesday to 100,000 11th graders as a measure of whether students are learning what they need for college. The test is free for students, who can submit their ACT scores when they apply to college.</p>
<p>The State Board of Education last year made the ACT a requirement for high school juniors, in part because it includes a section on science. The scores will be used to evaluate how the state's high schools are teaching students and how North Carolina stacks up against other states.</p>
<p>Both the ACT and the SAT exams are accepted by colleges and universities across the country.
<p>Indiana is planning to start this soon. I think it is great if it is free. The problem in my school is that many of the students will not take it seriously, and we put every test score on the transcript.</p>
<p>Illinois has had the State ACT in April for years, and it previously included writing. This year, due to budget cuts, the State ACT is without writing. Yes, no charge. And the grades showed up on the ACT Web site just like the national tests and could be sent to schools from the ACT web site. </p>
<p>I think Tennessee offers ACT without writing, too.</p>
<p>MizzBee, in my kids’ school (in Michigan) every single junior takes a mandatory prep class that covers a whole lot more than just testing tips…makes it real and serious I think because you have to “give up” an elective slot to take this class and no one gets exempted.</p>
Is this a regular one-semester class? Does anyone feel it is worth the time? My son’s private school offers a test prep class, but I just didn’t see the value.</p>
<p>^^ Yes, the kids say it really helps them. They take practice tests, they also spend time on writing, writing prompts, reading and comprehension, review of basics…all of which benefit certainly the 90% headed off to college, but help the 10% who may not be going to college. They rotate a group of teachers so each teacher has a week or so which makes it fun for the kids, too, as the teachers have stories and are “fresh”. It was not mandatory when S1 was in high school, but it became mandatory about 5 years ago.</p>
<p>i wish there were prep classes. In Ds senior class, only 2 students broke over 2000 on the SAT. We have serious test deficiency in our district and nothing has been done about it. I am hopeful that the advent of mandatory testing will mean that the high school gets serious about the standardized tests.</p>