Louisiana District Gives Juniors Access to Online Prep Courses
Next year, high school juniors at the Lafayette (LA) Parish School System will get a chance to take a host of ACT and college and career readiness courses online to help them plug any skill gaps before graduation.
The course offer is the result of a partnership between the parish district and online course provider BenchPrep. The courses assess students as they progress and provide analytics and information back to their day-to-day instructors with suggestions on focus areas a given student needs work on. Courses are designed using gamification mechanics, and feature immediate feedback techniques, flashcard games, and student leaderboards.
"As the stakes for student success on the ACT continue to rise both for students and school districts in Louisiana, Lafayette Parish is looking for tools to help our students achieve to their highest potential on the ACT," said Randy Bernard, Academic Specialist at LPSS in a statement. "It is our hope that BenchPrep will become an important component in our learning toolkit for high school students."
The ACT course was designed in part by Craig Gehring, a Louisiana native who made perfect scores on both the ACT and the SAT and now runs his own ACT prep camp. Gehring will also make periodic visits to Lafayette to provide additional support and to work closely with teachers on the implementation of the program.
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Stephen Noonoo is an education technology journalist based in Los Angeles. He is on Twitter @stephenoonoo.