On To College

Part of the Montevideo High School's process for continuous improvement planning was looking at the senior College and Career data. A piece of this data is ACT performance as an indicator for college readiness. Seeing that the data did not paint the desired picture, the high school team, hungry for exemplary results, made a plan!

It would have been very easy to say, seniors have already taken the ACT as juniors and thrown their hands up, but instead, they planned a "tier 2" intervention for the month of October called College Knowledge Month. Throughout October the high school:

  • helped students to take advantage of Free Mn College Application month,

  • brought in On to College founder, John Baylor to kick off a month of ACT prep,

  • hosted seniors at an On to College "Invest in Your Future" day,

  • became a host site for offering the ACT to seniors on October 29,

  • played College Bingo to increase awareness,

  • hosted multiple college representatives during lunch period for students to talk to, and

  • coordinated staff college apparel days in order to expose students to a variety of colleges throughout the month.

By highlighting next steps, the importance of and advantages to scoring a 23 or higher on the ACT and showing students how to attain that, and exposing high schoolers to college programs and opportunities, MHS is showing how hungry they are to prepare seniors for their next step in life.