Scores Soar: LHS Posts Highest ACT in School History

A year ago, Lemont High School students and faculty lauded the Class of 2009 after learning it had posted the highest ACT scores in school history. 

Well, LHS is celebrating again. With the ACT corporation's recent release of composite scores for the Class of 2010, the graduating class has turned in another record-setting performance.

Graduating seniors posted an average ACT composite score of 22.7, besting the previous year's 22.4 mark. This score is a full 2.0 points better than the average composite for all Illinois students.

Thomas Trengove, principal of Lemont High School, attributed much of the students' success to the school's academic curriculum.

"When a school gets good ACT scores, I think it's always fair to say that it has a lot to do with putting the kids through a strong program in the years leading up to the test," he said.

The Class of 2010 also matched or improved in each of the exam's four testing categories—mathematics, reading, English and science.

The Class of 2010's average scores were:

• 22.6 in mathematics
• 22.9 in reading
• 22.5 in English
• 22.1 in science

LHS has improved upon its composite score in four out of the last five years, raising the average 1.3 points since the Class of 2006 took the exam. The success has been especially noteworthy to LHS administrators because the school's student body has increased by more than 40 percent since 2002.

According to Trengove, about 60 percent of LHS students enroll in ACT prep courses. In the classroom, teachers try to incorporate the exam's style into their own instruction, he said.

"The way the ACT asks questions doesn't always line up with the way you would traditionally test math, science, social studies and so on," Trengove said. "Our faculty tries occasionally to put questions on quizzes and tests that are more in the style of the ACT."

Starting with the Class of 2002, all juniors in Illinois were required to take the ACT as part of the Prairie State Achievement Exam (PSAE). The exam previously was limited to college-bound students.

The ACT corporation uses graduating students' most recent scores from a national testing date or PSAE testing.

District 210 administrators began using data several years ago to determine ways in which they could build upon current academic performance. Trengove said the school's ACT performance increased after data analyst Kathy Brockett began working at the school.

"Intelligent use of data is an extremely powerful tool that most educators haven't used," he said. "What (Kathy) does is she takes raw data and makes it usable for members of our faculty."

Trengove said he and his faculty hope to continue improving the performance of those students whose scores fall in the middle quartiles.

"Our top quartile continues to perform exceedingly well, and we're even happy with how our bottom quartile is scoring," he said. "Where we continue to want get better is that massive middle."

Tony Hamilton, director of school and community relations for Lemont High School District 210, called the achievement a "community effort."

"We hope to keep the fire lit so we can keep improving on these scores in the future," Hamilton said.