The ACT will now take place on Saturday in the spring from 8:00 am to 12:30 pm and it will no longer be mandatory.
“The accountability test has been replaced with the ACT. It is required that each state has a test for accountability so that we know where each state falls as far as our education system and how well our kids are learning,” BHS counselor and ACT testing coordinator Julie Berg said. “The accountability test for the last few years was the ACT.”
This year the district will use a required test called the North Dakota Plus Test, making the ACT an optional test.
“To take it, you would have to register to take it on a National Testing Day which is a Saturday and there are some other testing dates in September,” Berg said.
If different schools fill out their maximum capacity for test rooms they will send students to other high schools.
“Anyone can come here and test like Dickinson can come here,” Berg said. “We only have a certain number of spots available and if it’s impossible to hold everyone we will assign them to the next testing center.”
Sometimes students will even have to drive out of town to the nearest testing center if they are full.
“Legacy is also a testing center,” Berg said. “If Legacy is full then we would find the next closest spot which would be Wishek, North Dakota.”
Taking the ACT has a lot of benefits and it can allow students scholarship opportunities.
“It is not required to get into college and that may be true in North Dakota,” Berg said. “It is not a requirement for admissions anymore, but the ACT is still valuable to have.”
The ACT can also determine whether a student should be placed in college classes during high school.
“It will allow you to look at course placement in college, so if you don’t get a qualifying score in a college math class that’s okay,” Berg said. “You just have to take another type of testing to get a qualifying score to justify taking that math class.”
In addition, the ACT can let colleges see how students’ data compares nationally.
“It is a good scale for colleges to use because they can compare kids nationwide because it is a very well-known exam,” Berg said. “The accountability test has no comparable national data.”
One difference between the accountability test and the ACT is the accountability test is an electronic test and the ACT is a written test.
“We still do paper testing rather than electronic testing, which I’m guessing if you were to poll kids they might prefer the paper-pencil test over the electronic test,” Berg said. “There is an electronically available ACT we just haven’t opted to do.”

ACT Registration. Students can sign up to take the ACT on a specific Saturday in the months of September, October, December, February, April, June, and July. They had to change this because of the accountability test. “The school district will cover the test for the first time which is like seventy dollars and then you will have to pay if you take it again,” Julie Berg said.