Students Graduate from High School Ready or Not

In 2005, a record number of test-takers included a surge in minorities, suggesting that more underrepresented students are considering college. The number of ACT-tested students has increased by 9 percent nationally since 2001, with even larger percentage increases for minority students:

• Minority students now make up 27 percent of all ACT test-takers, up from 24 percent in the class of 2001.
• The number of Hispanic test-takers has jumped by 40 percent since 2001.
• The number of African American test-takers has grown by 23 percent since 2001.
• The number of Caucasian test-takers has increased by only 2 percent since 2001.

“It’s wonderful that more and more students who might not have considered college several years ago are now making plans for education beyond high school,” said Richard L. Ferguson, ACT’s chief executive officer and chairman of the board. “That’s a reflection of the many recent state and national policies and initiatives designed to increase student achievement so that more students are ready for college and work after high school. We are also pleased that scores are stable despite a larger number of test-takers. However, there are too many students who graduated this year without all of the skills they need to be ready for college or job training.”

Half of Test-Takers Have Needed Reading Comprehension Skills
Reading skills are critical to a student’s success in college courses across the board, but particularly in the areas of social sciences and humanities. First-year college students who don’t have adequate reading comprehension skills are likely to struggle in courses such as history, sociology, literature, business, and others that require extensive reading.

About half of ACT-tested 2005 high school graduates lack at least some of these reading comprehension skills, based on ACT’s new College Readiness Benchmark in reading. ACT College Readiness Benchmarks are scores that indicate a student has a high probability (75 percent) of success in specific entry-level college courses. Success is defined as earning a grade of C or higher in the course.

ACT’s data show that students who score a 21 or higher on the ACT Reading Test are very likely to succeed in college-level social science courses. Only 51 percent of ACT-tested 2005 graduates reached or exceeded this score, suggesting that the other half of this fall’s college freshmen may struggle to keep up with the reading demands of many of their first-year college courses.

Students Do No Better Meeting College Readiness Benchmarks
This year’s score results show virtually no improvement in the percentage of students who met or exceeded ACT’s College Readiness Benchmarks in English, math, and science, with math and science continuing to be the biggest problem areas. Just 41 percent of graduates scored a 22 or higher on the ACT Math Test, indicating they have a high probability of succeeding in college algebra, while only 26 percent scored a 24 or higher on the ACT Science Test, indicating they are likely to succeed in college biology. As was the case last year, 68 percent achieved a score of 18 or higher on the ACT English Test, indicating they are well-prepared for a freshman English composition class.

Course Selection and Rigor at Center of Readiness Problem
What’s causing this disconnect between high school graduation and college readiness? The answer is multidimensional, but at its center is the fact that too many students are not taking the right kinds of courses in high school to prepare them for college and work. And, even when the right courses are taken, many of them are likely not sufficiently rigorous, or focused on the higher-level course content that students need to learn.

“Another problem is the number of students arriving in high school without the foundational skills to take challenging courses,” said Ferguson. “We need to identify students at much earlier grades—eighth grade and earlier—and make sure they have a solid foundation of basic knowledge and skills needed for rigorous high school level courses. Only then will it be possible to graduate students who are all ready for college or job training.”

In the class of 2005, many graduates again did not take the right courses in high school to prepare for college. Just more than half (56 percent) of test-takers reported taking the recommended core curriculum for college-bound students. The core curriculum includes four years of English and three years each of math (algebra and higher), science, and social studies. Despite an overwhelming wealth of research from ACT and other organizations documenting the importance of taking a solid core curriculum, the percentage of students taking the core curriculum has not changed significantly in the last 10 years.

Last year, ACT published a report, Crisis at the Core, urging high schools and state educational leaders to strengthen the core curriculum and to review the quality and rigor of current course offerings. In February 2005, ACT and The Education Trust issued a joint report, On Course for Success, that examined high-performing high schools and defined—for the first time—the specific rigorous academic skills that need to be taught in English, math, and science courses for high school graduates to be ready for college and work.

Both of these reports stressed the need for high school students to take not only the right number of courses in high school, but also the right kinds of rigorous courses to prepare them for the demands of college and the workplace. The reports defined the essential skills that colleges expect entering students to have to be ready for credit-bearing college courses.

More Women Than Men Plan to Attend College
More women than men are attending college, and that’s reflected in the gender breakdown of test-takers. In the class of 2005, women outnumbered men taking the ACT by nearly 145,500; 56 percent of test-takers were female, while 44 percent were male. Males earned an average composite score of 21.1, up by 0.1 over last year, compared with a composite score of 20.9 for females, which is unchanged from last year.

As in previous years, men earned higher average scores than women on ACT’s Math Test and Science Test, while women earned higher average scores than men on the English Test and Reading Test.

Racial/Ethnic Scores Continue to Follow Established Patterns
Among ethnic/racial groups, Asian American students again earned the highest average composite score at 22.1 (up 0.2 point compared to last year), followed by Caucasian students with 21.9 (up 0.1). American Indian/ Alaskan Native students averaged 18.7 (down 0.1), followed by Hispanic students at 18.6 (up 0.1) and African American students at 17.0 (down 0.1).

About the ACT Assessment
The ACT is a curriculum-based achievement test made up of four separate exams in English, reading, mathematics, and science, plus an optional writing test which was introduced in February. The average national scores for each subject test included in the ACT in 2005 were: English, 20.4; Math, 20.7; Reading, 21.3; and Science, 20.9. These scores are unchanged from 2004. Scores for the ACT Writing Test will be reported for the first time next year.

The ACT is scored on a scale of 1 to 36, with 36 being the highest possible score. ACT scores are accepted at virtually all colleges and universities across the nation. The test is administered in all 50 states and is the predominant college entrance exam in 25 states.