Central High Students Post No. 1 ACT Scores in Louisiana

Central: Best College Entrance Scores in State

by Woody Jenkins

CENTRAL — Central High students received more recognition Friday, when Central High principal Bob Wales announced that high school students in the Central school system scored the highest in Louisiana on the annual ACT examination, which is used as a college entrance exam for all universities in Louisiana.

Students greeted the news with applause, especially when told their reward — the right to wear shorts to school from now on!

One senior said, “A high ACT score is great for your college career and the TOPS scholarship program, but in the here-and-now, getting to wear shorts is pretty cool — literally, because this heat has been unbearable!”

Wales paraded into a school assembly early last Friday morning to announce the news.  He was wearing shorts and two signs.  The sign on the front of his shirt said, “Want shorts?  Get scores!”  On the back of his shirt, the sign said, “Got scores?  Get shorts!”

Last spring, Wales had promised the students he would let them start wearing shorts if they improved their ACT scores.

They did just that — raising the average ACT score in the district from 21.0 to 21.8 and placing them in a tie for 1st place in the state with St. Tammany Parish.

“It was a significant gain,” Central schools Supt. Mike Faulk said Wednesday afternoon, as he got ready to board a plane to Washington for a conference on raising school standards nationally by 2014.

Faulk said the new test scores are a tribute to students and teachers in the Central school system.

How did they do it?  “We had a good group of seniors who scored high,” Faulk said, “but our scores are an average of everyone who takes the test from the 10th to the 12th grades.”

“Our 10th graders have been participating in a testing program to help them prepare for this kind of test.  We have workshops on Saturdays and tutoring specifically for the ACT.  In the spring, we will offer an ACT prep class that should help students do even better.”

Faulk said 221 students at Central took the ACT.  Faulk said, “The ACT test is very important for our students, because it determines whether they will be admitted to the university and whether they will earn a TOPS scholarship.”

` For now, the brainy kids at Central High are getting a lot of accolades and perks — like shorts!

— Woody Jenkins, Editor