As the days drew closer to the standardized test, many juniors sought out any opportunities to help them prepare for the upcoming test. On February 21, Bellevue Public School juniors were able to attend ACT preparatory sessions on the weekends at Bellevue East and Bellevue West high schools.
When funds for the John Baylor On-To-College test prep program that East had provided in the past no longer came in, faculty members searched for other ways to prepare students for the standardized test.
“When the district decided to not fund that [On-To-College] any longer, we looked at other ways that we could help students get help and more practice with the ACT,” assistant principal Susan Jensen said.
At the ACT help sessions, English was taught by instructor David Bossman, reading by instructor Laura Messier, math by instructor Thomas Messier, and science by instructor Mark Coup. Reading and science were the only subjects that switched between two weeks.
“There’s another English, math, and then they’ll start doing science instead,” Messier said. “So reading was the first two weeks and then science will be the second two weeks.”
If more students attend these help days, school faculty members and administrators will hope to organize more of them in the ongoing future. As long as more teachers volunteer to attend and help out with students, more ACT help days are likely to happen again.
“The big thing is teachers are also giving up their time,” Jensen said. “So hopefully as long as there’s still interest and it is improving student scores, I would definitely hope that we would continue to offer this in the future.”
Although these help days were provided before the actual standardized test, as part of the Nebraska-Centered Assessment System, some students and teachers wish the help days happened earlier in the year. More time and preparation are essential to juniors who will be taking the ACT soon.
“We came into this with no material whatsoever,” Coup said. “Whatever we put together can be improved, I’m hoping that Ms. Jensen and administrators at Bellevue East and West recognize that there’s benefits to doing this and can make this a regular program going forward.”
Not all students are able to benefit from the ACT help days, as only juniors are able to attend. With this being the case, junior Kellie Locke hopes in the future, if the help days continue to happen, that they will be open to all freshmen and sophomores as well.
“If they were to do it, I would think that they should do it on different days, so it’s not all connected because the freshman and sophomores could not take it seriously,” Locke said.