Regional Chamber targets 19 Valley school districts for special assistance

By DENISE DICK

denise_dick@vindy.com

lordstown

Regis Fitzgibbon wishes his son had the benefit of two ACT practice tests the way his younger daughter does.

“I just think he could have done much better,” the father said.

His son, a freshman at Penn State University studying computer engineering, did well, but he believes the benefit of the ACT Explore, which affords students the opportunity to take two practice ACT tests, will allow his daughter to do even better. His daughter is a freshman at Lordstown High School.

Lordstown is one of 19 school districts in Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana and Ashtabula counties where the Eastern Ohio P-16 Partnership for Education brought the ACT Explore program. P-16, started by the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, formed to try to close gaps between different levels of education from preschool through college. It’s based in Warren.

Eighth-grade students in the program take a test that, like the regular ACT test for older students, covers English, math, science and reading. Students’ performance on that test shows their respective strengths or weaknesses in those areas.

By providing school districts with data about how students performed on the tests, those districts can see if there’s an area where a significant number of students didn’t fare well, said Stephanie Shaw, P-16 executive director. Schools can tailor instruction to address that.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.