Lakeville schools suggest ACT opt-outs

The Lakeville school board is recommending that students be able to opt out of the ACT, a college entrance examination that all of the state's juniors will be required to take next April for the first time.

As a result of a mandate passed by the Legislature in 2013, the state will pay for students to take the test, and the test will be required to graduate. There is no minimum score requirement, as there was with the previous graduation test, called the GRAD.

The requirement is aligned with larger statewide goals to prepare all Minnesota high-school graduates for college or a career, like the "World's Best Workforce" initiative.

Scores from either the ACT or the SAT are required to get into most U.S. colleges. But taking the ACT costs $38. With the writing component, the fee is $54.50. Many students take the test more than once to improve their scores.

In Minnesota, 76 percent of students already pay to take the test. Last month Minnesota students posted the highest average scores in the nation for the ninth consecutive year.

But educators worried that those not taking it are missing out on a key piece of college readiness, possibly because of a lack of money, transportation or awareness of its importance.

"We see this as an equity issue, frankly," said Josh Collins, communications director for the Minnesota Department of Education. "Now they will get [to take the test] for free in their school."

"I feel like the state mandating this test doesn't allow parents to determine whether or not this is a good test for their child," she said.

The requirement that every student take it in April could hurt students' scores, since only the April score will be reported to the state. It could also lower districtwide and state averages, she said.

However, students can choose which score will be reported to colleges, and will still have that option.

A second part of the board's recommendation is that students who don't want to take the ACT at all — or tests in the ACT sequence taken in other grades — should be able to meet the graduation requirement through alternative means, like scores from another test or high school grades.

"I want local control in determining what our graduation requirements are for you to get a diploma," Volk said.

Lakeville's objection won't change anything, by itself. But the resolution will be included in the board's legislative priorities and passed on to the Minnesota School Boards Association as an issue lobbyists can pursue further if they choose.

Board member Jim Skelly supported the resolution, because he believes "students should get credit for their highest possible ACT score."

Passing the resolution is a way to continue the conversation about the statute, he said, and isn't controversial.

Overall, however, he thinks "there are a lot of positives" to the ACT mandate, including improving access to college for all students and allowing busy teens a chance to take the test during school, rather than on a Saturday morning.

Unlike the GRAD test, a high-stakes exam that kept students from getting a high school diploma if they didn't pass, taking the ACT is a positive thing, the state department's Collins said.

This isn't the first time state officials have heard concern about allowing earlier ACT scores to suffice if students have already taken it, he said. "I do believe that is something that we're looking at, to see what the options are for that," he said.

But making a change might require legislative action, he said.

Some districts, like Mounds View, already pay for all their students to take the ACT. At least 10 states give it to every junior for free.

Volk believes that more administrators and school boards will be concerned about the mandate when they understand it better. Many people don't realize that all students must take the test to graduate, she said.

"I think I was the first one to wake up and figure out what the scoop was," she said. "None of us knew, and when I talk to school board members from neighboring districts, they had no clue either. They're like, 'What?'"