Flandreau High School students increased their ACT (American College Testing) scores on average this past year, according to results reported by the state Department of Education.
Students, primarily last year’s seniors, had the highest average score in the last five years for test results that can vary because of the number of students who take the test and the abilities of each year’s group. Flandreau’s composite average for 2018 was 21.23 with 30 students taking the test. That compared to 19.77 in 2017 and 18.74 in 2016. In those years, 22 and 23 students took the test.
In 2015, the composite average was 19.59 for the 27 students who tested, while the result was 21.04 in 2014 for that same number of students.
“They were a really good class last year. This year’s class is a really great class, too, academically,” said Principal Nichole Herzog. “I think we still have work to do, but we’re making progress.”
Flandreau started an elective class for math ACT preparation last year, but it is difficult to say if that made a difference in the average test score for the school, Herzog and teacher Scott Ross said. There are many variables that go into how students do as a group on the ACT. An added variable is that the school changed its math curriculum “This is our first year with a new curriculum,” Herzog said.
The school also offers students the chance to do after school prep work in the spring in English and science, to learn strategies for those portions of the test. The high school started using MAP testing this year, assessing students three times during the year to see what specific areas each student needs to improve. That testing should help remediate skills that students need for college admission tests and for college courses, Herzog said.
The school’s staff encourages as many students as they can to take the test so that they have a score on file if they decide to go to college, a typical requirement for admission. Some students take the test multiple times, hoping to increase their number in order to get better scholarship aid packages, which are based on a student’s scores. Private scholarships may consider the ACT scores but also look at other qualities of the student, such as community involvement, Herzog said.
Each of the five past years, Flandreau students were below the state average, which was 22 this year for the 5,856 students taking the test. That number is fairly consistent for the state with previous average scores of 21.91 in 2017, 22.02 in 2016, 22.01 in 2015 and 22.03 in 2014.
Colman-Egan High School’s composite average scores were 19.6 for the 15 students tested in 2018, 21.42 for the 12 who took the test in 2017 and 19.5 for the 10 who took the test in 2014. Results for 2016 and 2015 were not given because fewer than 10 students tested.
Ross, who has six students in his math ACT prep class this year, said students practice higher-level math problems and learn strategies for taking the test. For example, because the test is multiple choice, students can substitute each answer into the problem to see which one works, he said.
“The questions are a pretty wide range of difficulty,” he said. About one-third of the national test questions are not difficult. Many of the other questions are problems in which students may not realize they know how to do them.
“They’ve just never seen it presented in that way,” he said. That is where practice can really help improve scores on a high-stakes test. “Even one or two points on the ACT is a big deal.”
