ASPIRE

Rural high school students interested in pursuing careers in North Carolina agriculture are often not successful in gaining admissions to four-year institutions offering agricultural degrees.

This is often due to their test scores on a college entrance examination.

ACT Supplemental Preparation in Rural Education (ASPIRE) helps to bridge deficits in rural high school students’ performances on the ACT College Entrance Examination to increase the number of students pursuing higher education.

Through the ASPIRE program, Cooperative Extension Agents and public high school teachers team up to offer courses in rural counties to prepare sophomores and juniors for the ACT college entrance exam.

Why Choose ASPIRE?

By participating in an ASPIRE class, you will learn the latest tactics and strategies to improve your ACT score.

The program is open to rural high school sophomores and juniors and includes 30 hours of ACT course instruction where students will learn the skills they need to tackle the ACT.

Students also receive the Princeton Review ACT study manual, the Princeton Review 1,460 practice question manual, and access to four ACT full-length practice exams with score analysis and breakdown.

SAT/ACT Average Scores in NC Counties

Below is a table depicting the average ACT and SAT scores for the top livestock and crop producing counties in North Carolina compared to Raleigh Charter High School, Chapel-Hill Carrboro City schools and Wake County schools (urban counterparts).

All scores are compared to the NC State incoming freshman class average of fall 2014.

School/County	Average SAT	Average ACT	NC State Average SAT Differential	NC State Average ACT Differential
Raleigh Charter High School	1254	27.7	-12	-0.3
Chapel Hill – Carrboro City Schools	1194	24.6	-72	-3.4
Wake County Schools	1063	20.5	-203	-7.5
Top 10 Livestock/Crop Producing Counties	938	17.2	-328	-10.8

On average, the top ten livestock and crop producing counties (a total of 15 counties within North Carolina) had a deficit of 328 points on the SAT and a deficient of 10.8 points on the ACT.

These counties bring in a great deal of money for North Carolina, yet their young adults find it increasingly difficult to further their education. Often, private standardized test preparation tools and tutors are luxuries that students in rural, economically distressed counties may not afford. ASPIRE offers rural high school students a cost-effective way to increase their ACT scores and become more competitive when applying to college.

Counties With ASPIRE Teachers

Below are the counties with trained ASPIRE teachers. Counties in red indicate that a class is currently in session or will start soon. If you are in a surrounding county, you may apply to the class location closest to you.

Alamance	Alexander	Ashe
Beaufort	Bertie	Buncombe
Cabarrrus	Catawba	Chatham
Cleveland	Columbus	Davidson
Edgecombe	Haywood	Hertford
Johnston	Jones	Lincoln
Madison	Mitchell	Montgomery
Pasquotank	Pender	Person
Nash	Robeson	Rowan
Rutherford	Transylvania	Union