ACT Assessment Score Patterns Confirm the Importance of Core Curriculum

“Because the ACT Assessment is a curriculum-based test, it is highly sensitive to the benefits of taking a college-preparatory program and doing well in those courses,” says Cyndie Schmeiser, ACT Vice President for Development. “As students take more courses in a particular academic area, their increased proficiency is reflected in higher ACT scores, and the degree of improvement is measurable and consistent.”

While many different factors—socioeconomic issues, quality and commitment of school faculty and staff, home life, community support—help determine a student’s readiness for success in college, ACT research confirms that high school course selection is the most important element. Data for the class of 2002 clearly show that the most compelling correlate of strong performance on the ACT Assessment is taking a rigorous and effective core curriculum of courses in high school. Students who take four years each of math and science score much higher than students who don’t.

Results for California ACT-tested students in the class of 2002 clearly demonstrate the correlation between students’ high school math and science curriculum and their scores on the ACT Math and Science tests as well as their ACT Composite scores. California students who took only Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and Geometry in high school scored an average of 18.2 on the ACT Math test and an average Composite of 18.4. Those who took four or more years of math earned an average of 25.1 on ACT Math and an average Composite of 23.6. This average difference of five to seven points is highly significant. Students who took two years or less of natural science scored an average of 19.2 on ACT Science and an average Composite of 19.7, while those who took biology, chemistry, and physics earned an average ACT Science score of 22.3 and an average Composite of 23.3. This is approximately a three-point difference.

Just as concentration on core curriculum will almost certainly boost ACT scores, insufficient preparation often means students may not be ready for the level of work required in college classes. ACT staff do a great deal of research to help colleges and universities develop optimal course placement scores so that ACT results can be used not only for admissions purposes but also to identify the college courses a student is prepared to take. Strong ACT scores mean that a student is more likely to be able to handle college-level work in general. The scores can also be used to place students in the courses that will allow them to get the most out of their college experience. And ACT research shows that when students are placed in the right courses, they are more likely to do well in them, stay in college, and earn a degree.

Students who come to college poorly prepared are often placed in noncredit or remedial courses. ACT Director of Research Services Robert Ziomek points out that “a large measure of the success of a college experience has to do with whether students are able to go immediately into the appropriate college-level courses, or whether they will have to be diverted into remediation before they’ll be ready to take the courses they want. Nowadays, remediation levels in college are astronomical. Up to 50 percent of students going to college need to be placed in some form of remedial courses.”

High schools want their students to be well prepared for college, ready to enter the courses they want without remediation. Because ACT scores reveal a great deal about how well high school courses have worked to prepare students for college, high school staff can use them to determine the effectiveness of their programs and services. According to Schmeiser, “More and more high schools are using ACT's Standards for Transition^®—statements about what students who score in different score ranges on the ACT Assessment typically know and are able to do in specific subject areas—in conjunction with their students’ ACT scores to answer questions such as, ‘Are we in fact teaching the right things in our courses?’ ‘Are we teaching the things that colleges want students to have learned so they will be prepared to succeed?’ They are using the Standards to evaluate and reaffirm that the courses they’re offering are stressing and teaching the skills the students need to be ready for college-level work—without remediation.”