teachermom2834 Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 Ds is at the testing site now and I haven’t heard from him that there is a problem so I guess his test is on. And crazy how at 7:56 on test morning I’m still not confident. Reading the FB comments about people getting canceled and turned away from test sites is very concerning. It doesn’t feel fair or at all standardized. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CinV Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 My son is currently taking his test at the only site within 50 miles that didn't cancel. He was so happy that he could finally take it and stop the prepping. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teachermom2834 Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 Oh my...the comments on the ACT FB page about so many kids, sometimes having driven hours to a test site, showed up only to find out the test was canceled with no notification. So incredibly frustrating. I told ds last night just to do his best and not fret. This is not a normal situation or a normal testing season. 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahbobeara Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 My daughter is actually taking the ACT RIGHT FLIPPIN' NOW!! I'm flabbergasted, truly! Even leaving the driveway this morning, I told her that I really thought we'd be back in 20 minutes because the high school would be closed up. NOPE. There were at least 50 kids showing up to test. Daughter was NOT excited to do it but she shoo'ed me away (sniff sniff) and I'll go back in a few hours to go pick her up. Really shocked. I'm praying that her score is good enough for whatever she decides to do in the next year so we don't have to do this again! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2scouts Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 My Facebook page is full of angry parents whose children drove to testing sites that never opened. In one case, they drove 4 hours! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PinkTulip Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 We drove 3 hours yesterday to a very rural area of my state and stayed at a motel last night so my son could take the ACT this morning. He said there were 3 people in his room who had driven with their parents from 9 hours away because it was the closest testing center that still had seats open and not canceled. This is such a crazy year! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teachermom2834 Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 We had people who drove to our area from 3-4 hours away. I'm not sure how they chose where to try to take it since it seemed so arbitrary what centers would actually have it and most were cancelling too late to reschedule. When ds registered we did have the discussion if the fancy private school 30 minutes away might be more likely to actually hold it. Turns out they cancelled. I don't know how many people it actually happened to but according to FB and Twitter there were plenty of people that showed up to the test only to find out the center had cancelled or their child had been moved to another site or the test was happening but their child had been bumped due to reduced capacity. Some sites say that they cancelled because the test materials never arrived. Others announced that they were never a test center and had never had plans to administer the test. Seems issues that go beyond complications of Covid. It's no wonder that ACT announced all those extra dates in the fall. They had to know Saturday was going to be a disaster. After all the preparation and anticipation of whether or not it would be cancelled, ds felt so bad about it he came home and cancelled sending his scores to his top choice school. And I kept thinking of him sitting in a room of strangers sharing air for four hours. Just about any big gathering we have had around here has been followed up in a few days with an announcement that if you had been there, you were exposed and to watch for symptoms. So, overall, not a successful day or worth the drama. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2scouts Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 I'm glad I got sick of it all and just asked for a refund. We'll have to decide if we're going to do a fall test or not. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted July 20, 2020 Author Share Posted July 20, 2020 @RootAnn@teachermom2834@mom2scouts https://leadershipblog.act.org/2020/07/statement-on-july-national-testing.html?m=1 “Statement on July National Testing ACT July 20, 2020 We are currently looking into an unfortunate situation where students showed up to cancelled test centers for the July 18 national test administration. We will provide more information as soon as we can. We are truly sorry that this happened, and we will do everything we can to provide solutions to students affected by this situation, including offering a makeup test date where we can. Our top priority is to provide testing opportunities for all who wish to pursue a path to college and career. We know we have work to do to earn back trust and provide a positive experience for all who engage with us. Based on the information we have available, we know that more than 88,000 students successfully tested at more than 1,100 sites on July 18, while adhering to COVID-19 public health guidelines and social distancing guidelines and procedures for the health and safety of examinees. Around 1,400 examinees (at approximately 21 sites) were not able to test. We know that some sites cancelled up until late Friday night, including some we were unaware of, resulting in unprocessed communications to students. We will follow up directly with students who were impacted by same-day cancellations so they may receive refunds and plan for future opportunities to test. This page will be updated with more information as it becomes available.” 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs.W Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 Everything went fine for my daughter being able to test, but her location had dozens of students turned away because they had been reassigned to a different location at the last minute and they received no notification. One mom told me that they had printed the ticket Thursday night, so the reassignment happened some time after that. To make matters worse, staff were angrily yelling at all the kids to sign into their accounts on their phones and check their location so they didn't hold up the lines (great way to keep the kids calm right before the test!). Most of the kids didn't know their password to be able to sign in. If they weren't on the registration list, they were just turned away and if they weren't able to sign into their account they had no idea where to go. Not that it would have mattered, one kid we talked to had been reassigned to a location an hour away and another I heard about later was four hours away. I wonder if these kids are included in the 1,400 examinees who weren't able to test or if they are just counted as no-shows. Thankfully, we're done with this craziness (she got a decent enough score last time that if even if she didn't improve we're calling it good), but for those who still need to test, check those registrations the night before and early that morning and make sure you know your login info. Sheesh! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2scouts Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 31 minutes ago, Mrs.W said: Everything went fine for my daughter being able to test, but her location had dozens of students turned away because they had been reassigned to a different location at the last minute and they received no notification. One mom told me that they had printed the ticket Thursday night, so the reassignment happened some time after that. To make matters worse, staff were angrily yelling at all the kids to sign into their accounts on their phones and check their location so they didn't hold up the lines (great way to keep the kids calm right before the test!). Most of the kids didn't know their password to be able to sign in. If they weren't on the registration list, they were just turned away and if they weren't able to sign into their account they had no idea where to go. Not that it would have mattered, one kid we talked to had been reassigned to a location an hour away and another I heard about later was four hours away. I wonder if these kids are included in the 1,400 examinees who weren't able to test or if they are just counted as no-shows. Thankfully, we're done with this craziness (she got a decent enough score last time that if even if she didn't improve we're calling it good), but for those who still need to test, check those registrations the night before and early that morning and make sure you know your login info. Sheesh! That is totally unacceptable. ACT says they have "work to do to earn back trust". That's an understatement! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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