Last year on the ACT test, West students did not perform as well, which is partially due to Covid. Now that the new school year has started, West has continued something called academic assist. Instead of going to TNN after second block, students go right back to class. For instance, on Tuesday students would go to their first block, Wednesday they would go to their second block, then on Thursday they would go to their third block. Mondays and Fridays are not changed, so they would go to their TNN as usual.
Even if most of the students do not like the academic assist, there are those who believe that it is a beneficial thing, like David Jesus Hernandez, who thinks of the program as essential. Hernandez states, “I think that Academic assist is an essential program for the junior class this year. Though many students might not like it, it hopefully will help better enforce topics that many students might not be sure of. I think that it's a very helpful program that will raise many students' ACT scores.” Andromeda Guile Flores stated, “Yes, I do like the academic assist as it does help me with preparing for the ACT, which is one of the many big milestones in my very academically challenging Junior year.”
Fellow West Student Ethan Majors, states, “ I Dislike it for people that have no plan for college. We shouldn't have to do this when we do not care about the ACT. Most people will just pick answers at random so there is not a point in practicing for it when we wont use it at all.” Fellow West student, David King, also dislikes the academic assist, but for a different reason, King stated, “Dislike; while one day for academic assist would be fair, three days a week is too much and cuts into student time to do homework and make up work.”
Everyone has different opinions, but whether students like it or hate it, it is necessary to bring up the school's ACT scores. Students also can graduate with honors if they meet the ACT benchmarks. Furthermore, more scholarship money is available for higher ACT scores.