Freshmen and Sophomores Take ACT ASPIRE Test to Prepare for ACT

This past Tuesday, while juniors and seniors had a day off, freshmen and sophomores spent six hours taking the ACT ASPIRE test to prepare for the ACT junior year.

Associate Principal Mark Pollex explains why students have to take the test.

“These tests are important as they provide data that enables the school to better identify student progress, college and career readiness, and point students towards post-secondary opportunities.  Combined with doing well in your classrooms, taking these tests seriously will position students to be more successful on the important ACT test their Junior year,” he said. “By getting these ASPIRE scores along with the score from the PRE-ACT (taken at the beginning of your junior year) students, parents and staff can work on deficiencies prior to taking the ACT in the spring of your Junior year.”

Math teacher Amanda Hauser describes the importance of taking the ASPIRE seriously.

“First, much of your high school career and future plans are based on standardized assessment scores. That said, I believe the ACT ASPIRE tests give students hands-on practice with taking standardized assessments. Second, the ACT Aspire tests in 9th and 10th grade, to the best of my knowledge, help to bridge the gap between what students learn in class and what they might encounter in their future schools and/or careers,” she said.  “They help to monitor student progress towards being college and career ready when they leave high school.”

English teacher Katie Stanislowski feels the test is important because it will prepare students for the ACT.

“I think it is important for freshmen and sophomores to take the ACT ASPIRE because it gets them prepared for the types of tasks they will have to do on the ACT, and it also gets them familiar with the overall format of a big standardized test like that,” she said.

Sophomore Zehra Efe thinks the testing went okay and feels the test is more of a measurement on how seriously she will have to take the real ACT come junior year.

“I think it went okay. It was long and boring so the temptation to just guess on all of the questions grew higher with every question that passed. This is kind of important to me because I need a good score on the real deal and this will tell me how serious I have to take my ACT prep course,” she said. “I also don’t think we do a lot to prepare for this in class.”

Freshman Sabrina Benali feels the ASPIRE went well, but was laid back while taking the test.

“It went good except the computer problems in the beginning. I was pretty laid back since it was just a practice but I did try to do my best,” Benali said. “I was super prepared for the English [writing portion], since we have been practicing writing exams in class.”

Pollex, on the other hand, believes that students were well prepared for the testing.

“The content and skills asked for on these tests are mirrored with what your teachers have been doing with our curriculum in their classrooms. If you have worked hard in your classes, you are prepared to take these tests,” Pollex said.

Hauser agrees with Pollex.

“I do think the staff at GHS does a good job of holding students accountable for their own learning. I know that specific content area and grade level teachers also took time in class to familiarize students with the test and completed practice problems like those students could encounter on the ACT ASPIRE,” she said. “It is good to remember that these tests generally test where students are at in 9th and 10th grade – what they should know at that point in their academic careers, so it gives students a good glimpse of what they know and what they can still work on to meet their academic and career goals in the future.”

Stanislowski explains how English classes prepared for the ACT ASPIRE by completing several prompts similar to those of the ACT.

“I think students were pretty well prepared for the testing. In my class, we worked on similar ASPIRE prompts that asked students to write an essay in which they explained the value and the challenge of a given topic,” she said. “First semester, we also did some grammar concepts that I am betting helped students somewhat on the English test on the ASPIRE.