Audio clip
Phillip Mingola
More Hamilton County public school students taking the ACT college entrance exam scored a 25 or better this school year than last, according to district data.
About 335 students out of 3,487 who took the test between August and April scored at least a 25, which ACT officials said is competitive for most colleges and universities in the nation.
“A score of 25 or higher is a very solid score,” said Ed Colby, a spokesman for ACT, the company that designs the test. “It’s likely the type of score that would be acceptable at selective and some highly selective colleges.”
More than 50 of those Hamilton County students scored a 30 or better, putting them in the top 3 percent of test takers nationally.
The group of 335 high-scoring students does not include about 2,500 students who took the nationally standardized test on April 22. All Tennessee juniors are required to take the test, so any 11th graders who hadn’t taken the ACT before had to take it on April 22.
Central High School graduate Phillip Mingola earned the ACT highest score of any Hamilton County high schooler this year, with a 35. The 17-year-old said he got a 28 the first time he took it two years ago and took it a total of five times.
“I read the ‘Princeton Review’ book a bit,” he said. “I took it my sophomore year and then every semester after that to get a higher score.”
After considering Vanderbilt and Columbia universities, Mr. Mingola is headed to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville to study math and physics on a full scholarship. He hopes one day to be a math professor.
Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Jim Scales said the standardized test scores showed that local students are well prepared for life after high school.
“The ACT is a national test, so it really shows how our students compare to others around the country,” he said in a prepared statement. “And of course, it says that a good portion of our students are primed to succeed in whatever they pursue following graduation.”
About 320 students of the 3,301 who took the test during the 2007-2008 school year scored a 25 or better, and 44 scored a 30 or higher.
Scoring a 21 or higher is one qualification for the HOPE scholarship, which provides $4,000 per year to attend a four-year college in Tennessee.
Kelli Gauthier covers K-12 education in Hamilton County for the Times Free Press. She started at the paper as an intern in 2006, crisscrossing the region writing feature stories from Pikeville, Tenn., to Lafayette, Ga. She also covered crime and courts before taking over the education beat in 2007. A native of Frederick, Md., Kelli came south to attend Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in print journalism. Before newspapers, ...
Or login with:
New Account