American College Testing.

The ACT.

All juniors in Wisconsin take this test.

Juniors at Homestead and around the state fight for the perfect score.

A score out of 36 that can change their lives.

A score that can positively impact their future.

Luckily, the Homestead community is here to help guide and push all juniors to receive the best grade they can possibly get on this test through the newly offered free ACT Prep Course provided to students in January and February.

Principal Brett Bowers provided insight on what the Prep Course is, what it involves and how many juniors are paticipating in the class. “The ACT Prep Plan is an eight to nine hour experience that is spread out over four days. Two days are Tuesdays after school from 3-5 p.m, which is what I call more teacher-led ACT prep. There will be a math section, a science section and a literacy section, and there are already 96 juniors enrolled in the course,” Bowers said.

Select teachers at Homestead are involved in the free class provided. Tracy Grace, a science teacher, is looking forward to being able to aid students in preparing for this meaningful test she willingly decided to participate in. “I was asked, and I was happy to do it,” Grace said.

Kelly Denk, an English teacher, talks about how she became involved with the class as well. “Mrs. Rauch [publications teacher] was chosen to teach the class and there were so many kids joining that she reached out to me for help. I also have experience in teaching ACT prep classes,” Denk said.

“On one day, students will do math for an hour with Mr. Drake and Mrs. Jennifer Zortman, and they’ll do science for an hour with Mrs. Grace and Mrs. Dawn Pfaff. While half the kids are doing that, the other half of the kids will be with Ms. Denk and Mrs. Rauch do the English, reading and writing side of the ACT.”

When questioned why it was decided to integrate a new ACT Prep Plan, Bowers brings up three main reasons why he made the decision.

“We made this decision for a few reasons. One is trying to resolve an equity issue. Some students come from families where they have the resources financially to pay… and then other families don’t necessarily have the means to do that, so we’re offering this at no cost and it is available to everyone. That equity of access is very important to us. Second reason is it’s hard for students to manage the range of obligations and responsibilities they have in their lives… The third reason is we want to help students be successful… Students doing well on that assessment is good for everybody. It’s is good for the student and the school so hopefully this helps that to happen as well,” Bowers said.

Educators here at Homestead “want to close the gap of equity here, want students to be successful on that assessment for their own good and the good of our school. I think we all recognize that students are hyper scheduled and have a lot of commitments so anything we can do to be friendly to students in terms of their their schedules is a good thing,” Bowers said.