Des Moines schools to require ACT exam for high schoolers

Posted on October 24, 2007 in Schools & Education by DM

des moines schools logo I support the Des Moines Public Schools’ decision to require the ACT college entrance exam for all high school students, and I support the district’s decision to pay for the costs associated with taking the test. I’m a little confused about when the test will be administered (the Register article on this topic reports both “junior year” and “10th grade”), and I think it’s ridiculous to say they can’t figure out how much it will cost the district to do so (wouldn’t that be a simple math problem, number of juniors times maximum fee per student?).

When the test is administered is important. The Register reports that the district plans to partially cover the cost of administering the ACT “…by replacing a 10th-grade standardized exam with ACT.” If by that they mean that the 10th grade test will be eliminated, and the ACT would be taken in 11th grade instead, that makes sense. If they mean the existing 10th grade test would be eliminated and replaced with ACT in tenth grade, they might find that some of the material (isn’t there geometry in the math section?) covered in ACT has not even been taught yet.

I also believe critics are correct when they say that Iowa’s overall average ACT score will drop. When we implement required ACT, what we’ll likely find is that decades of mercy-advancements (promoting students to the next grade even when they were unable to read, or because they posed unwelcome behavioral challenges) are going to take a toll on Iowa’s collective average. So will decades of pushing kids down different paths of coursework based on whether they plan to attend four-year college - kids whose focus has not been on college preparatory coursework will find themselves unprepared for the ACT.

While the transition may be painful, public education should be about preparing students for the next step in life. I think all students should have the opportunity to know whether they are college material, rather than having guidance counselors or even family members make that assessment for them.

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