Statewide Highlights from the 2011 ‘Go On’ Challenge

• Canyon Springs High School created an advisory where each teacher mentors a select number of students until they graduate. The mentor focus is to support students in their academic and personal goals encouraging continued education beyond high school graduation.
• Eagle High School increased the number of students attending 2-year colleges who previously may not have attended a postsecondary institution.
• Frank Church High School dramatically raised their graduation rate each year from a low of 20% to a mid-70%.
• Gooding High School hired a certified teacher to track students and build relationships with postsecondary schools.
• In 2009-2010, 18 ACT’s were completed at Hagerman High School and in the contest year they reached 31 tests. They also had a comparatively high number of our seniors ‘go on’ to colleges and universities with many of them receiving scholarships.
• Seventy percent of the graduating seniors at Idaho Distance Education Academy will graduate having already earned college credits they can take with them to colleges next year.
• Inspire Connections Academy counseled each high school senior individually on postsecondary education plans and articulated their Career Explorations course for the 2011-12 school year. Seven students are currently taking the course for college credit and they increased the number of students who took college entrance exams from five students to twelve.
• Kimberly High School’s biggest achievement has been to expand the number of dual credit and tech prep classes they offers to students. Most of the students who took dual credit classes enrolled in college right after graduating from high school.
• The community of Kuna set up a scholarship fund to sponsor Kuna High School students to take the ACT test or pay the fee to take a concurrent credit class.
• Lakeland High School created new on-campus college courses for their dual credit students and emphasized and promoted PSAT, PLAN, SAT and ACT to all students. There was a 167% increase in students taking the PSAT, PLAN, SAT, and ACT.
• Madison High School aligned their economics curriculum with EITC’s economics courses. Since economics is a required course, every senior at their high school will now receive a college credit by the time they graduate.
• All 10th grade students at Malad took the PSAT test which was used to counsel students. They also provided funding for up to 6 college credits a year per student.
• Adjustments were made to class schedules in Marsing to allow all students to take as many dual credit classes as desired. The class of 2012 in its entirety is currently planning to attend some sort of postsecondary institution or military branch.
• Meridian High School recognized the need for a Career Counselor which they hired (part-time) and who has dedicated her time to student success.
• In one year alone, Nampa High School increased their student participation with ACT or SAT by 100%, especially exciting was the increase of students who took these tests that identified themselves as Hispanic.
• Notus High School increased participation in college entrance exams from 25 students in 2009-2010 to 78 students in 2010-2011 and 74% of this year’s graduates have enrolled in college or the military (summer or fall semester of 2011).
• Sandpoint High School conducts a school-wide college entrance exam day. Freshman take the EXPLORE, sophomores the PLAN, junior take the PSAT OR ASVAB and seniors participate in in finance fair.
• Sugar-Salem had over 100 enrollments in dual credit courses compared to the previous year of twelve or thirteen.
• At Vallivue High School, one of their graduates had enough dual credits to cover most of his general education at BYU resulting in about a year and a half of college covered and a $15,000 savings.
• Westside started an ACT Prep class before school that she broadcasts over the IEN. They cover all concurrent enrollment costs for students if they earn a C or higher in their college-level classes. During the 2010-2011 school year, their high school student body of 170 students earned an outstanding total of 748 college credits!