District 127 Acts To Better Prepare Students For ACT Test – PART II

Part II - John Bolger, associate principal at Central, and Jim Roscoe, associate principal at North, spoke at length with Patch about their efforts to spearhead a new direction in tackling the issue of how best to help prepare students for the ACT exam.

When faced with how best to help students deal with the actual process of taking the ACT, the administration at both Grayslake high schools went directly to the students. This simple approach led to an amazingly productive leadership team meeting.

"We bombarded the student panels with great questions and they responded openly and with amazing insight," said John Bolger, associate principal at Grayslake Central High School.

"The student voice was the essential missing factor in what we were trying to accomplish in terms of familiarizing students with the actural test and how best to deal with it," said Jim Roscoe, associate principal at Grayslake North High School.

This is what they heard from their students:

• They overwhelmingly stated that they responded best to their teachers.
• They like it when their teachers work directly with them. They love it when their teachers take a few minutes during each week to practice a few problems/questions for the ACT.
• Students said they feel tremendous anxiety about the weight of the scores upon their future.
• Several students expressed deep disappointment with their scores. Low scores led to the students feeling that they had let down their teachers, their parents and themselves.
• They worried so much about the test score number that they started to feel like that is all they - a number.
• Students said the schools needed to make the lunch time help voluntary. They assured administrators that kids would be much more interested and participate in it more than in the past when it was mandatory.
• Some students felt bad that they weren’t invited to be part of the program last year and really wanted to be. Nobody had asked them.

About a week and a half later, Bolger visited every junior during their U.S. History class. He also brought a panel of seniors with to answer questions that current juniors might have about the ACT. At the end of his presentation, Bolger asked the students how many of them would be interested in giving up half of their lunch period 2-3 days a week to get extra help and prepare for the ACT.

"We figured that if we got 30-40 kids it would be a great start," said Bolger. "So far we are at close to 200 students, about half of the junior class, and more are still signing up."

At North, Roscoe said he took a slightly different approach.

"What we did was pull all of the juniors out of their PE classes and trained them on the NAVIANCE program which also has a section for ACT prep with actual practice questions," Roscoe said. "While we had them training on the NAVIANCE program, we also approached them about signing up for lunchtime help to prepare for the ACT."

"We also offered lunch time assistance to anyone who wanted it," he said. "The response has been fantastic because we didn’t assign anyone to give up their lunch period and opened it up to all who wanted the help. We also used our two main entrance bulletin boards to display helpful information and attached a folder with practice ACT tests for students to grab and take home to work on at their leisure."

Bolger sent out an email asking for staff volunteers to work with students in an ACT prep class during the lunch periods. "The response was phenomenal," he said. "We have a whole team of teachers to cover all subjects, but first we’re going to concentrate on math, then science, then reading."

"I have a firm belief that we have wonderful talent in our classrooms at Central," said Bolger. "Our teachers are just looking for an excuse to work cooperatively to form dynamic learning teams. All you have to do is ask them, show them what our needs are, provide them with the meaningful data and then just get out of their way and let them create."

According to Roscoe, the North teachers were very excited to participate and help students to do their best. "We have some outstanding teachers who are dedicated to our student body and very, very passionate about promoting student learning," he said.

Every Tuesday and Wednesday from March 1 to April 13, students meet in room 1140 at Central for half of their lunch period to practice with pencil and scantron on sample ACT questions. Central students need to sign up prior to each session with Ms. Long in the Principal’s Office, Room 2050.

Another question posed to the juniors at both schools asked how many would be interested in coming after school or on a Saturday morning to take a full length practice ACT exam. They sign up for these opportunities in their English classes. Again the response was unexpectedly strong with well over 300 students already signed up to participate.

On Feb. 26, March 2 and March 16, students were given their first opportunities to take full-length practice ACT exams at Central High School. The next opportunities for this type of practice at Central are Wednesday, April 13 and Saturday April 16. These tests are open to North and Central students who wish to participate. North students will be given a practice exam in school on Thursday, March 24. All juniors will be taking a practice ACT during their first through fifth period classes.

Wednesday sessions begin promptly at 6 p.m. and end around 9:30 pm. The Saturday sessions will begin promptly at 8 a.m. and end around 11:30 am.

Visit the following website for more information:

http://central.d127.org/guidance/testprep and http://north.d127.org/guidance/testprep.

"Data shows that students who have taken three or more practice exams tend to do considerably better on the actual ACT exam than those students who have not taken any practice exams," said Bolger. "This unique opportunity is offered at no additional cost to the students or their parents at both North and Central."

Trained teachers in the Central building will score the test results. The results will be distributed to students in their English classes within a week of taking the practice exams. At North, the English teachers will be scoring the essays over the break while Roscoe and his trained interns will be scoring the rest of the test. Results will be distributed and explained in English classes at North when the students come back from Spring Break.

"Our long range plan is to restructure our curriculums at the district level to incorporate critical thinking, problem solving and understanding to help students perform better on the ACT and in their classes," said Roscoe. "Short term we are looking at the lunchtime help and practice ACT exams as critical element to help our students comprehend what the test format is and how best to attack the questions. Time spent by students trying to figure out the test is time lost to them to actually answer the questions."

"I think that this is how you take advantage of an economic downturn in a school," said Bolger. "By genuinely asking people for help and encouraging people to find creative ways to come together and work better together so that ultimately, we help our students succeed."