On July 16 of this year the Louisiana Department of Education released test results for the ACT to districts across the state. Today, the ACT sent its own official score reports to districts and high schools. While the two reports reflect very similar data, the ACT report includes “college reportable” scores only whereas the LDOE report in July was reflective of the performance of all students. Students earning scores that are not college reportable were given the test with accommodations not approved by the ACT.
The ACT report shows that the overall composite score for Lafayette Parish rose by .2% over last year. Small increases were also reflected on the science (.3%), math (.3%), and reading (.2%) portions of the ACT.
Lafayette Parish School System Superintendent Dr. Donald Aguillard reiterated the statement he made earlier this year after the LDOE ACT report came out in July that he has charged high school principals with improving ACT and all student achievement results. He also reminds us that the success of these efforts will not become evident until 2017 since the vast majority of ACT results reported each year were collected the prior year.
Dr. Aguillard has directed Central Office administrators to work with principals to provide additional support, providing ACT prep materials to schools. They will also assist principals with scheduling to ensure that there is a dedicated time in the daily schedule for students to work on ACT prep. The district’s goal is to move Lafayette Parish students’ ACT scores back into the top 10 districts in the state.