蜜桃影视

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A bill that would require high school juniors to take the ACT college entrance exam instead of a separate state assessment was tabled by the state House Education Committee on Friday at the Capitol in Pierre.

While a majority of testifiers supported , including the Department of Education, the bill鈥檚 prime sponsor Rep. Tony Venhuizen, R-Sioux Falls, recommended tabling it. That鈥檚 because Secretary of Education Joseph Graves said the department plans to switch to the ACT by the 2025-2026 school year anyway.

鈥淚鈥檓 not a person who sees the need to put things into law unnecessarily鈥� Venhuizen said. 鈥溾�� I just want to see this happen, and it sounds like it鈥檚 going to.鈥�

One person testified against the bill, saying it would degrade parents鈥� ability to make educational decisions for their children.

Education officials within state government have talked about making the switch to the ACT from the Smarter Balanced assessment for years, Venhuizen told legislators. That鈥檚 because the switch would reduce the number of tests most high school juniors take, would save families money if they want to send their children to college 鈥� since the state would be footing the bill 鈥� and would put more weight behind the students鈥� scores.

The ACT would be the best choice for a replacement test, Graves told lawmakers.

鈥淪tudents don鈥檛 find any value in (the Smarter Balanced test),鈥� Graves said. 鈥淏ecause they have no use for it 鈥� for the most part 鈥� they tend not to take the test seriously. This is a common complaint registered by high school principals and teachers. Because the test results don鈥檛 have any other use, then the value is low. We鈥檙e taking a test we use for accountability and that鈥檚 it.鈥�

About 58% of South Dakota students take the ACT before graduating, since most colleges and universities require scores in the admission process and for scholarship applications.

South Dakota students鈥� average ACT score in 2023, but it remains higher than the national average. Testers earned an average composite score of 21.1 out of 36. Switching to the ACT for all 11th graders will likely lower the state鈥檚 score.

Some other states, like Nebraska and Montana, require 11th graders to take the ACT. States where 100% of 2023 high school graduates had taken the test had average scores .

ACT participation rates . During the 2022-2023 school year, 77% of white students took the ACT, 7% of Native American students took it and 5% of Hispanic students took it.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. South Dakota Searchlight maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seth Tupper for questions: [email protected]. Follow South Dakota Searchlight on and .

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