Owen County graduates have mixed feelings about a bill that would require all juniors to take the ACT making its way through the General Assembly.
While several said they weren’t prepared for college or weren’t as prepared as they should have been, they said they don’t see how a bill that requires juniors to take the ACT can make a difference.
“I didn’t view the ACT as an important test in my life,” said Gabby Grider, who graduated from Owen County High School two years ago and is currently a student at Morehead State University. “The only reason I took it was because it was required for college. I can remember just guessing on a lot of questions because I didn’t want to take it. The test didn’t prove anything.”
Grider wasn’t alone.
Abby Cobb said she doesn’t see a connection between the results of the test and being prepared for college. Cobb graduated last spring and is a freshman at Eastern Kentucky University.
“I see no common ground between the two,” she said.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Majority Leader Dan Kelly, R-Springfield, doesn’t agree. Senate Bill 130 would require all 11th-graders to take the ACT college entrance exam in order to determine if they have deficiencies that require extra work during their senior year.
Current statistics show that 54 percent of all Kentucky students who take the ACT score a 17 or below in at least one area of the test. If that’s the case, they must take remedial classes in college in the curriculum area — math, English or reading — in which they scored a 17 or below. A perfect score on the test is 36. Based on 2002 scores — the latest available — 22 percent of students missed the mark in one subject, 15 percent missed in two subjects and 17 percent failed to score high enough to avoid remedial classes in all three areas.
Of those, 61 percent took remedial courses in math, 52 percent in English and 46 percent in reading.
In Owen County, the average ACT score in 2002 was 19.6. The state average is 20.9.
The bill, which was approved by the Senate last week, moves to the House for consideration. If approved, it would take effect in the 2008-2009 school year and has been endorsed by the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, the Kentucky School Boards Association and the postsecondary council.
One of the premises behind the bill is reducing the amount of time and money needed to get high school graduates up to level and ready to take college-level classes. Colleges and universities spend about $25 million each year on noncredit remedial classes. Of that $14 million is state funds and the remaining $11 million comes from the student’s pocket in the form of tuition.
Both Grider and Cobb took remedial classes. Grider took a remedial reading class. Cobb had to take a math class. They weren’t alone.
“In my class alone there were almost 200 students,” Cobb said. “And that was just one class. I know for sure there were other math 095 classes.”
Owen County’s Senator, Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, is a co-sponsor of the bill. He said he stands behind it because it’s designed to help send more students to college in the future.
“Right now, we’re not sending enough students to college and many of those we are, are not prepared,” he said last week. “Students are taking the CATS test, but the results are meaningless to colleges. That test tests the school and teachers and not the students. The ACT would give us an indication of how well the student is actually performing compared to other students across the nation.”
Thayer also said requiring juniors to take the test would send a message that they are expected to do well.
“We’re not setting the bar high enough,” he said. “If all Kentucky juniors knew they had to take the ACT, they would work harder.”
But beyond sending more students to college, the bill includes a test that allows students to learn if they’re ready for the workplace as well. Thayer said this is important because more and more companies, like Toyota, require students to be prepared in such subjects as English and Algebra.
Rep. Royce Adams, said the bill also points to the need for more community technical schools in the the state.
“We have to be able to attract kids who are not suited for college,” he said, adding that preliminary discussion on the possibility of adding a technical school in Owen County is something that should be considered.
“It’s something we can look into in the future,” he said. “I’m in favor of that.”
Thayer said he is too, adding that he applauds Owen County Superintendent Mark Cleveland’s consideration of the idea.
“I’m glad to hear it’s being considered for Owen County,” he said. “That’s the kind of vision we need for the future.
Cleveland said a technical school may help meet the needs of some students, but overall, he said he thinks there needs to be more communication between secondary and post-secondary educators.
“My kids are coming out of high school and they can’t achieve, but they’re turning out my teachers,” he said of universities and colleges. “There needs to be communication between educators from the primary level to the post-secondary level.”
Cleveland said his administrators and teachers are also looking at the curriculum they’re offering students.
“The question is, do I teach my kids what they need to know or do I teach what I’ve always taught?” he asked. “For example, ‘Romeo and Juliet’ was written at a lower level than the VCR manual you have in your living room. Do I teach my kids to read Shakespeare or do I teach them to read the things they’ll be reading when they leave school?”
Cleveland said one consideration is to give freshmen the opportunity to take more electives to increase their chance of success at the high school level and then push higher-level academics in the junior and senior years when students are more mature.
And he added that the technical school — should it get approved in the future — would be much different than those of the past. He used NASCAR as an example.
“If NASCAR isn’t using math and physics, I don’t know what is,” he said. “This is not your father’s technical school. While it’s still meant to be occupational, technical schools have to meet the needs of our community’s employers; and more and more they are looking for advanced skills in math and sciences. The bottom line is we need to make our high school more rigorous because the work place is more rigorous.”
He added that colleges and universities must accept some of the blame for the increase in students needing remedial education, pointing out that when he went to college, students with ACT scores of 17 weren’t even accepted at most colleges.
“They spent two years at a junior college and then transferred,” he said. “They were much more successful then than if they’d gone straight to college.”
But overall, he said he supports Senate Bill 130.
“It just gives me another piece of information I can use to educate these children,” he said. “We have to have authentic assessment to do that and the ACT gives us one possibility.”
One Owen County graduate said she thinks the ACT offers today’s students the opportunity to improve their college careers.
“I think it will be a great advantage for (my sister) to take the ACT several times,” said Neesa Howard, a student at Western Kentucky University. “Even if students do not plan to go to college, the test will give everyone (teachers, students and parents) a better idea as to how educators are preparing students for life after high school.”
Howard said students should take the ACT as many times as possible. She said she took it four times, beginning in seventh grade, and her score improved each time. “I think it is a big advantage to take the test several times,” she said.
Howard said she also felt prepared for college and was not required to take remedial classes. She did say she wished she’d had the opportunity to take more advanced classes in high school.
University of Louisville student Glypie Grider said she too was prepared for college, and she thinks most other students are as well. The difference in the success of some and the failure of others, is their decision to study or not.
“I don’t know that incoming college freshmen are necessarily unprepared scholastic-wise when they take introductory college courses,” she said. “I think it boils down to personal work ethic. If a student is willing to sit down and learn the material, he or she will. If they don’t care — and they probably didn’t care in high school, but were able to get by — they typically have a harder time adjusting. At this level, you have to care in order to make the grades.”
Grider’s sister, Gabby, said having a big sister helped her know what to expect.
“But the one thing I wasn’t prepared for was the work load,” she said. “There is so much reading assigned from multiple classes. The only advice I have is be prepared to study. It is nothing like high school studying and the professors don’t baby you like high school teachers.”
Cobb too said she felt prepared for college, but wished her high school career could have been tweaked a little.
“I wish high school would have catered to college-bound students more,” she said, adding that while in high school students should, “listen to the teachers for their advice and learn everything you can while it’s free. If you don’t get a high enough ACT score, you will be paying and not earning credit for something you should have learned in high school.”

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