It is becoming increasingly hard to ignore the almost laughable attempts that have been made in order for Lockport juniors to take a practice ACT in preparation for the state mandated one in April. 

Let’s start from the beginning:

At the end of lthe 2023-2024 year, Illinois announced that they are now mandating that all junior level students must now take the ACT, when previously, they had to take the SAT. Due to this change, all of the practice that Lockport juniors have been doing since eighth grade became entirely pointless as the tests are actually quite different. 

In order to try and prepare students for the required test in April, LTHS planned on giving a PreACT, or practice ACT, to all junior level students on January 8. All students in grade 11 were expected to arrive at school before 7:45, disregarding the late start Wednesday schedule. The test was expected to last until 2nd period which means students taking the test would only miss two periods of their school day. Easy, right?

In reality, problem after problem was encountered on the morning of January 8, and the last group of students did not start testing until 10 AM. An executive decision was ultimately made to only administer the first two sections of the test out of respect for our other classes. 

There were numerous things that frustrated students, but the major ones were the fact that staff didn’t tell us what was happening and we were left to sit in silence with nothing to do for over an hour. The test we took was designed for freshmen, and this not an accurate practice for the content level on the actual test, making this not only a waste of our time, only two portions were taken. The most challenging portions were skipped but most students still did not return to class until third period which meant more time out of the classroom. 

Because of this major shortcoming of the first attempt to administer the PreACT, LTHS arranged to have the junior class once again come in at 7:45 on Wednesday February 19. The plan was for students to take all four sections of the test which totals to just under three hours. However, parents of Lockport juniors received an automated call at 6:45 PM on February 18, informing them that the test had been cancelled due to unforeseen difficulties with ACT and passwords for each student. 

This is now the second time in which the preparation for a test that determines scholarships and college admissions has been taken away. A test such as the ACT can be the difference between attending college or not for many students and can also be a factor in major scholarships. Juniors are now forced between paying hundreds of dollars to attend an after school prep course that often runs late into the night or just not seeing what the test is like until it is time to take the mandated one in April. 

Junior year is already incredibly stressful for most students so the added worry of not feeling fully prepared for a major test is unnecessary and unhealthy. While it is very possible that there was miscommunication between ACT and LTHS, it is unacceptable that our students have now had the opportunity of preparing for a crucial test ripped away from them twice in a row. A good place to start in fixing the problem that Lockport created would be offering free ACT prep after school a couple times prior to the test or sessions during COMPASS.