Indio High School Boosts ACT Scores

At California's Indio High School, Assistant Principal Charles Mazet noticed some striking improvements in ACT exam performance since Shmoop was first introduced to classrooms. 

"At Indio High School, Shmoop has been crucial in helping students prepare for the ACT exam," says Mazet. "They walk into the exam with the confidence that they can be successful. Part of this is because students can work at their own pace, both at school and at home. The Shmoop program also gives them a better sense of the exam through the drills and practice exams—the explanations of why one answer choice was right and the others were wrong helped them gain a stronger understanding of what exactly the ACT exam is looking for."

For juniors in the class of 2014, average scores in English increased almost a full point from those of juniors in the class of 2012 (17.3 to 18.1). The average score in Reading increased from 18.3 two years ago to 19.0 this past April.

Meanwhile, the percentage of students scoring above the national average skyrocketed from 61% to 80% in a two-year period, and the percentages of students scoring at or above the College Readiness Benchmark also increased across the board: 

• from 46% to 56% for the English test
• from 26% to 36% for the Reading test
• from 7% to 11% for the Science test

The good news doesn't stop there: most of the students in the class of 2012 took the ACT exam two or more times, so their scores represent their overall best efforts, while the juniors in the class of 2014 has only had the opportunity to take the test once.