Terrebonne ACT scores show significant hike

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Terrebonne Parish high school students showed a significant increase in their ACT scores, according to school superintendent Philip Martin.

Martin said data from the state Department of Education showed ACT scores in Terrebonne Parish increased by 1.3 points, bringing the parish’s composite score to 19.2. More of the parish’s students who take the ACT are making a score of 18 or better.

Martin and other school officials were notified last week before the board’s regular meeting on Tuesday when they were invited to participate in a state-sponsored webinar, which was held last Wednesday. Invitations were only sent to those districts that showed a “significant increase” in student performance on the college entrance examination.


“We were told our parish showed the fourth largest improvement in the state, and we are proud and pleased with the performance of our students, teachers, administrators and the families that support them,” Martin said. All four high schools showed growth in scores, he said, but the school with the largest improvement was Ellender Memorial High School and Terrebonne High School had the largest percentage of students who scored 18 or better on the college entrance exam.

Julio Contreras, principal of Terrebonne High School, said, “We increased our scores and we are very happy with that.” He said from the first day of school until the testing date in March, the faculty, administrators, guidance counselors and students focus on the test.“We have little campaigns, like bell-ringers, which are five-minute exercises at the start of classes, based on the test. All our teachers, from ninth grade through twelfth, participate in these exercises.” Contreras also said it’s a year-long process of preparing and conditioning the students to be successful on the test. For example, at the school, they give mock ACT tests, so that students can get used to the timed aspect of the test and easily understand the instructions. When they understand the instructions, he said, the students don’t have to waste precious time reading or re-reading them. The questions for the mock tests, he said, are like the ones on the real test in terms of the types of questions and rigor.

The mock tests are graded, he said, and then faculty and administrators can figure out in what areas the students need improvement. If, for example, he said, the students’ performance on a mock test show low geometry scores, then the next bell-ringer might be on proofs. “We try to reinforce what they missed,” he said.


At the last school board meeting, board president Roosevelt Thomas held up an email from the state Department of Education, inviting representatives of the district to participate in the webinar as a rebuttal to a citizen who said the parish’s ACT scores had decreased.

Terrebonne ACT