While in past years the ACT has been used as an aptitude test for college bound students, starting in Spring of 2015, the state of Missouri will require that all juniors take the test as a way to gauge academic standing of schools.

“I think they’re hoping to do is have one test that everyone takes that’s the same and plus it’s the same across the nation so that will give us some indication of where we are nationally with that test. It’s the same test they’ve just put it into place through the law that we have to give it to all juniors. It will be free to the students but the school will have to pay. It’s designed to be like a standardized idea of how everyone is doing achievement wise,” Dr. Jim Pritchett, principal of Rolla High School said.

Rolla High School currently has an average ACT score of 22.4, which is above the state average of 21.8. Although the averages of all schools would be affected by the new law, Pritchett is not worried about Rolla’s average dropping.

“I would anticipate that it would drop a little bit just initially but our students are bright students and I’m sure it will bounce back up after we expose it to everybody and do a little prep-work with our students over the next few years,” Dr.Pritchett said.

The cost of the ACT without writing is $34 per student, and although the test will be free for the students and Rolla High School, it is still unclear what the cost will be to the state and whether or not a discount will be allowed. One problem that will be faced by Rolla High School, however, is how to administer a test to the entire junior class at the same time, as there is a set date in April where all juniors statewide are to take the ACT.

“. . .Giving [the ACT] to 300 plus students at one time is a little bit of a logistical concern, but other than that, not really. We have bright students and I think all of our students will do well. Some of our students will get the chance to take it that haven’t  gotten the chance before. My only concern is just logistics. Like, where are we going to put 300 plus students to take the test, and we’re kind of working behind the scenes to try to figure out how to do that,” Pritchett said.

Another challenge that might arise from having so many students testing at the same time is that of cheating. Traditionally, when taking the ACT, students are assigned classrooms so that they can be split up into smaller groups to be better monitored by the proctor, but depending on the setting, students may be more difficult to monitor.

“We’re always on the lookout for cheating, but I don’t think that just because we’re giving it to all students that it will increase. Our students know how to take tests and we will put all the safeguards in place just like we do for everything, but that shouldn’t be a problem,” Pritchett said.

With such a challenging standardized test, it brings up the question of whether or not schools will require extra preparation in class to prepare students and ensure that their high school remains in good standing.

“Currently, we just offer our ACT Prep class this semester. I think that’s something we’ll have to explore administratively and with our teaching leadership team and with the counseling center as how to approach that. I know some schools are requiring some ACT prep, but we’ll kind of see how that goes. That’s still to come, I’d say,” Pritchett said.

Even though so many negative side effects of a class wide ACT are possible, Pritchett also believes that there may be some unintended positives as well.

“It might be the opportunity for students to think, ‘Hey, I can do this,’ and maybe in the past they may not have taken it, but it may be an opportunity for more students to at least consider college, but it’s not being just for that reason, but sure there may be some students who may not have taken it normally and say, ‘hey, you know I did well on it so maybe I should explore the college route’,” Pritchett said.