The makers

In addition to student and national controversy, HHS is facing the facts.

According to data from the Minnesota Department of Education, the graduating class of 2016 at HHS had an average ACT composite score of 21.6, 1.9 points less than the previous year. These scores put HHS last in the Lake Conference by almost three points, and merely half a point above the state average.

Amidst these schoolwide statistics, Bullinger hopes to keep the emphasis on individual ACT scores.

“We aren’t going to use our average scores to apply to college— they may say something to the community about how prepared students are— but what matters more to me is if students are getting a 21, 22, or 23, those gateway scores to get into schools that they want,” Bullinger said. “Do I want a higher average? Absolutely. But before that, I want to make sure that everyone’s taking it and succeeding individually.”

Thus, HHS has begun to refocus curricular efforts towards success on the ACT in hopes to improve student performance.

According to Bullinger, in the fall of 2016, each department began to adopt plans to embed ACT-specific skills and strategies within the curriculum. As the middle of the school year approached, administration and staff evaluated and shared their progress.

Colby acknowledges the benefit that the refocus could hold.

“District and school efforts to improve ACT scores that are focused on strengthening the curriculum and improving learning, rather than on things such as test-taking skills and strategies, can provide a real benefit to students, not just in terms of their ACT scores, but also in terms of their readiness for success in college and career,” Colby said.

Many opponents of standardized testing, including Neill, disagree. He feels that such efforts will detract from genuine learning.

“The process of ‘teaching to the test’ is typically pretty boring. It disengages students, they’re less interested, and if they pick up on the kind of slanted, biased, narrow, visions of our society that you see often in these tests, that can further disengage many students,” Neill said.

Bullinger, too, understands concerns of ACT opponents such as Neill. But because of the test’s importance in college admissions, he feels that it’s essential for HHS to assist students.

“I don’t love the fact that it has bias, and I would like to find another assessment out there that didn’t. I would love it, frankly, if we could just say that grades and transcripts were enough, but that’s just the game of college admissions,” Bullinger said.

HHS’ cornerstone effort to increase student success on the ACT is the reinstatement of a mandatory and free ACT for all juniors on Apr. 19. Many students, including Appelman, are looking forward to taking advantage of the free ACT.

“I think that’s a smart decision, because not a lot of people have $56 that they can just give up to take the ACT, which gives everyone a chance to take it,” Appelman said.

All of these measures, in turn, seek to improve students’ success on the ACT, and thus their post-secondary success as a whole. Bullinger said that if the ACT wasn’t as paramount to college admissions, HHS would not be making these changes.

“The ACT, particularly due to the fact that so many institutions use it, is a key to open doors. It’s more accessible for us, and more importantly, it’s more valuable in terms of predicting how students are going to do,” Bullinger said. “We care that students do well when they’re here; we care more about what they do when they leave here.”