AVERAGE ACT SCORE 2019 - 2020 20.  HIGHEST SCORE: 25

John Herbert Phillips Academy (JHPA) stands for excellence, creativity, innovative, and forward leaning initiatives to challenge our scholars.  One of our initiatives for the 2021-2022 school year is to offer an ACT Prep class for students in grades 7 & 8 who scored Above Average (highest level) in Reading and Math on the 2020-2021 i-Ready and ACAP standardized tests.  The students will sit for the exam in December of 2021 and April of 2022.  This initiative is in line with the superintendent's Strategic Goals in student success: Increase percentage of students meeting ACT with writing benchmarks in reading and math from 8% to 20%, as well as College and Career Readiness Goals.  

JHPA is a specialty school in our Middle Year Program (MYP) and Primary Year Programs (PYP), with some percentage of our scholars in the Primary Year Program zoned to the school.  Overall, approximately 18% of our total scholars are in the Gifted program.  At the end of the 2019 school year, 27% of our overall MYP scholars  were in the Gifted program.  Our 6th and 7th grade students comprised of 28% of gifted students.  These numbers represent instructional pedagogical considerations to accomplish the superintendent's "Force for Greatness 2018-2023" goal of students performing at or above grade level and most importantly college and career ready students. 

Offering a Free ACT Prep course for our scholars will ensure that they will perform well and score high on the test in preparation for college applications in the next 3-4 years.  The practice they receive now will alleviate anxiety and stress associated with preparations and taking the actual test, enabling them to perform well and potentially receive higher scores for college admissions and scholarship opportunities.

Our world class dedicated and qualified staff will conduct the prep classes once a week.  JHPA will provide all materials and test prep study guides for our scholars.  Our goal is to give them all the exposure and tools necessary to succeed on the actual ACT test.  Although we are a middle school, our belief is that we have a huge part to play in the College and Career Readiness efforts of the district.

Our 6th and 7th grade scholars advancing into 7th and 8th grades in 2021 will have approximately 20% of scholars who scored Above Average (highest level) on the Scantron test.  These scholars are invited to participate in the Free ACT Prep initiative.  We aim to maximize our limited resources to ensure a class size of about 30 scholars or the maximum 45 invited for this program.