Jerry Tillman is a Republican state senator from Archdale and serves as co-chairman of the legislative education oversight committee. Yesterday, Tillman’s committee heard a proposal from the NC Department of Public Instruction (DPI) to give the ACT test to all public high school juniors in North Carolina.
Admittedly, I am not thrilled with the idea, mostly because of the plan’s steep price tag ($5.5 million). That aside, Tillman’s response was spot on, “It’s better than what we had. What we had wasn’t comparing us with anybody except county to county.”
Of course, this is a pretty big gamble for state education officials. The ACT will put the rigor (or lack thereof) of our high schools and the validity of our graduation rate to the test.
