Performance scores starting with the current school year are set to rely heavily on the ACT. Results from the college entrance exam would account for 25 percent of a public high school’s score.
Debbie Meaux, a teacher at Kaplan High in Vermillion Parish, says 11th and 12th graders who have never had to take the ACT before are not prepared for it.
“We had been telling them, if you’re not going to college you don’t have to take the test – the ACT. And now they’re being forced to take a test that does not reflect that route that they took," Meaux told the House Education Committee Wednesday.
Local administrators are concerned their scores will plummet if the ACT is factored in too soon. Poorly performing schools can lose their students and can be subject to state takeover.
The proposal now headed to the House would keep in place the old school grading formula that does not include the ACT until the House and Senate Education committees approve any changes.