Principal Danny Coggin stands beneath the school mascot, a mustang, at the entrance to Bradley County's Walker Valley High School in this file photo.CLEVELAND, Tenn. - High school students from Walker Valley, Bradley Central and Cleveland get a free ACT practice session Saturday.
Wednesday was the last day to register, and the boot camp has 75 students signed up, but Walker Valley mathematics department head Amber Caldwell said she will be glad to sign up more today. "I want to cap this at 100," she said. "Our goal is to offer this again in March. All juniors are required to take the test in March."
Caldwell and Cheryl Jansen, Walker Valley's college and career counselor and a certified English teacher, will be leading the boot camp.
"It will be an intensive training for students but in a fun environment," Caldwell said.
Students do better with the test if they are familiar with it, she said.
"We want our kids to be able to raise their scores," Walker Valley Principal Danny Coggin said.
The boot camp is from 9 a.m. to noon. The ACT training, the first ever presented by the schools, is free.
Tennessee is one of eight states that requires all high school students to take the ACT. The 2011 test scores showed six of the other states -- Colorado, Kentucky, Louisiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wyoming -- had higher scores than Tennessee, with Mississippi finishing lower.
Tennessee students beginning high school in 2009 must take the ACT as a graduation requirement as part of the Tennessee Diploma Project.