Each year, students take part in ACT testing, and the results are then reported to area schools in the fall. South Central Calhoun (SCC) High School Principal, Randy Martin, says they are seeing a consistently positive trend with their test results.
The students are mostly on their own for ACT prep, but Martin says that he believes that class offerings at SCC help with bringing up those scores. They offer several college level courses in English and literature, mathematics and the sciences. Martin reports that average scores in each category were higher than state averages.
Martin says it is not as much a competition as it is an expectation for student performance. Superintendent, Jeff Kruse, believes they are all accountable for these test scores, but that is not where he and Martin want the focus to be.
Sara Pibal is a learning coach at SCC Middle School and working towards getting administrative certification. She is also a parent to seventh and eighth grade students, and says the staff goes above and beyond to help them all excel.
ACT tests are a predictor of college success and an entrance requirement for attending any four-year college or university in the state of Iowa. Martin says scores around the 21 point range are predictors of success in college, and scores over 27 or 28 will result in many scholarship opportunities for students.
