School Counselors Provide Valuable Help

Whether they are helping students select classes, planning college fairs, writing letters of reference, working with students on ACT test registrations, arranging college campus visits, or answering questions for parents, junior high and high school counselors wear many hats. Get to know your student’s counselor and encourage your teen to do the same. The closer your relationship, the better connected you’ll both feel to the advising process.

A counselor’s schedule and availability vary depending on the size of the school, his or her advising responsibilities, and other factors. Ask your student’s counselor about contact preferences—phone, note, office visit, email, or text messaging—and ask to be kept in the loop about upcoming events.

Keep in mind that while the counselor is dedicated to helping your student, he or she is also doing the same for many other students. Be mindful of deadlines and considerate of the counselor’s time. Like you, the counselor wants your child to succeed.

Start in Junior High: ACT Solutions to Become College and Career Ready

Junior high is a great time for your child to begin thinking about college and possible careers. It’s also a great time to begin taking the most rigorous classes offered in school.

Many states incorporate ACT’s college and career readiness solutions as part of their statewide assessments. These statewide partnerships:

• Increase opportunities for minority and middle-to-low-income students.
• Promote student educational and career planning.
• Reduce the need for remediation.
• Correlate with increases in college enrollment, persistence, and student success.
• Align with state standards.

Students in Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, and Tennessee are required to take the ACT^® test. In North Dakota and Wyoming, students may take either the ACT or WorkKeys^®. And in Arkansas, Texas, and Utah, the state offers the ACT at no charge to the student.

To see if your state offers EXPLORE^®, PLAN^®, the ACT, WorkKeys, National Career Readiness Certificate, or WorkKeys-based certificates, please check with your student’s school.

Majority of Parents Support College Readiness

According to a March 9, 2011, MetLife survey, 93 percent of secondary school parents said it’s important that all students graduate from high school ready for college. When asked if college readiness should be one of the highest priorities in education, 73 percent of parents said yes, but just 54 percent of teachers answered in the affirmative.

Businesses that were surveyed stressed the importance of teamwork. They also rated critical thinking (99 percent), problem solving (99 percent), and strong writing skills (97 percent) as absolutely essential or very important.

So what’s the best way to ready students for life after high school? ACT recommends that your student take the most rigorous classes offered at his or her school. Because the ACT is an achievement test—based on what students actually learn in school—taking challenging classes will not only prepare your student for the test, it will also prepare your son or daughter for college and career. For more information about academic readiness, please read our 2010 Condition of College and Career Readiness report.

2010–2011 ACT Test Date Schedule

To help your student plan ahead, test dates for 2011-2012 include:

• September 10, 2011
• October 22, 2011
• December 10, 2011
• February 11, 2012
• April 14, 2012
• June 9, 2012

Registration dates for these tests will be posted online later in March 2011.

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ACT also publishes Padres ACTivos for parents who prefer to read in Spanish.

See also:

ACT's Information for Parents

The ACT

PLAN

EXPLORE

Financial Aid

College Search

Careers