Assignment: Education – Career and College Ready
School Districts Work to Ensure Career and College Readiness
Galesville, WI — “I want to go to college,” said Kelsey Towner, a senior at Galesville, Ettrick, Trempealeau High School.
Towner is like a lot of high school students.
“I would like to go to (University of Wisconsin) La Crosse or Viterbo…. do something in the medical field,” said Towner.
Taking the ACT is a must for her to achieve this goal.
“For my freshman and sophomore year, we took a practice test for it and I got a 28,” said Towner. “And I was hoping I’d do better than that and I did.”
Kelsey is one of a record 1.8 million students in the 2013 U.S. graduating class who took the ACT. And her high school, Galesville- Ettrick-Trempealeau, helped her prepare.
“We recently have had 60% of our students take the ACT this year,” said Kevin Shetler, G-E-T district administrator.
That is the highest percentage of students to take the test at G-E-T High School in the past six years. And their average test score increased by almost one-point.
“One of the goals we’ve set forth in our district is to improve student achievement on the ACT,” said Shetler.
The reason is because the state superintendent wants to ensure every child graduates ready for “further education and the workplace” in his Agenda 2017 initiative.
“He has wanted to make sure all students can either get to college successfully or have a career goal in mind when they graduate from high school,” said Shetler.
So, high schools like G-E-T are working even harder to make sure all students are college and career ready.
“So, for example, the EPAS (Educational Planning and Assessment) which is kind of a preparatory process for the students when they take the ACT,” said Shetler. “We expose them to that and they become more exposed to the test.”
This type of experience is helping students like Kelsey realize their goals of getting into college by doing the best they can on the ACT.
“I actually got a 30,” said Towner.
Now Kelsey feels she’s ready for life after high school.
