The “preparatory” in the name of Thomas Edison Preparatory School is there for reason. The school is so adept at getting Tulsa’s youth ready for college they have just received the Oklahoma ACT’s 2008 College Readiness Award.

     “The award is in recognition of your school having a significant increase in its ACT Composite score over the past five years while, at the same time, increasing the number of students taking the ACT Assessment,” wrote Karen Pennell, ACT’s southwest manager, in a letter to Edison principal Stacey Vernon.

      The ACT Assessment is the gold standard of college admissions tests—used and accepted by institutes of higher learning all over the country.

      Pennell also praised “the high school’s faculty and staff efforts and the dedication of Thomas A. Edison High School students and parents to focus on college readiness and raise the level of college readiness for all students.”