The Shawano School District is offering its high school students a carrot to prepare for the ACT exam.
The ACT is a standardized national test intended to measure students’ college readiness in English, math, science and reading.
The district is implementing an ACT challenge where students are encouraged to go online and answer a sample ACT question each day. For every correct answer, the student’s name is entered into a monthly contest where students can win an iTunes card or other prizes.
The district is hoping local businesses will donate money or prizes for the program, which has received its first infusion of cash, $500, from American Car Care, operated by School Board member Bruce Milavitz.
“As we go forward, I hope that there’s some excitement about it,” Milavitz said during Tuesday’s School Board meeting.
The money will be used to purchase 10 iTunes cards for the school year, one per month.
School Board member Derek Johnson, who initially made the suggestion that the high school offer an ACT incentive, pointed OVERSET FOLLOWS:out that, even without the graduation requirement, the ACT test is an exam many universities require for admission. Some scholarships also require a certain score on the ACT.
“I know when my daughter goes to university, she doesn’t have to take the math requirement based on her ACT scores,” Johnson said.
Johnson believes the question of the day will give students a better idea of the kind of questions asked on the exam and how they are asked. With that knowledge, they could score better, Johnson said.
In 2014, high school students in Wisconsin will be required to take the ACT instead of the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exam (WKCE) to pass high school. Juniors will take the ACT, while freshmen will take the ACT Explore and sophomores the ACT Plan.
The tests would be taken in the spring instead of the fall, when the state had administered the WKCE.
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