A bill being considered by the District of Columbia would mandate that all 75,000 students in D.C. public schools would have to take the SAT or ACT college entrance exam to graduate from high school. Every student would also be required to complete “at least one” application for admission to college or vocational or trade school — even if the student does not intend to continue schooling beyond 12th grade.
The bills sponsor, Councilman Kwame Brown, commented “I’m not saying everyone should go to college, but, my goodness, we have to get more young folks prepared to go to college if they want to go college. A lot of them don’t even know how to prepare to apply to go to college. They have never seen a college application. We have to set high expectations.”
Eleven states (not Nebraska) require students to take college entrance exams. If properly utilized, these tests can help students prepare for college.
At Bancroft-Rosalie, our goal is for all students to attend a two or four year college, a vocational or trade school, or join the military.
All 8th and 9th grade students take the EXPLORE test, a pre-ACT test. The results show students what the ACT test will be like and give students feedback on their academic strengths and weaknesses so that they know where they need to improve. All B-R sophomores take the PLAN test, which is also a pre-ACT test. The Plan test results give the students a predicted range that the student will likely score on the ACT.
In their junior year, Bancroft-Rosalie offers all students the chance to take to take an ACT test prep class in the spring and the district pays for the first ACT test fee for all students.
Students not taking the ACT are given the COMPASS test, the college admission test used by Nebraska Community Colleges.
