Hispanic Students’ ACT Scores Hold Steady as Number of Those Testing Increases at Record Pace

ACT’s chief executive officer and chairman Richard L. Ferguson says it’s encouraging that more Hispanic students are planning to attend college because it indicates they’re raising expectations for the future. Research shows it is common for test scores to decline as the number of test-takers rises, so the fact that the Hispanic score is holding steady or growing slightly over five years is a very positive sign.

More than 33,000 Hispanic high school grads—39 percent of all Hispanic test-takers—took the ACT Writing Test. They earned an average score of 7.4 on a scale of 2 to 12. The national average for all students was 7.7.

The Importance of Taking Core Curriculum

ACT score results point to the importance of taking a challenging program of courses in high school and suggest that far too few students are doing so. Hispanic students who reported taking ACT’s recommended core curriculum in high school—at least four years of English and three years each of math (algebra and higher), science, and social studies—earned an average composite score of 19.5. For those who took less than core, the average was 17.6, nearly two points lower.

Just over half (52%) of Hispanic graduates who took the ACT reported taking the core curriculum, while more than a third (36%) reported that they took less than core. Twelve percent of test-takers didn’t report which high school courses they completed.

Hispanic students who took the highest-level sequence of math courses in high school—Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry, Trigonometry, and Calculus—had an average score on the ACT Math Test more than five points higher than students who reported taking less than three years of math.

In science, students who reported taking Biology, Chemistry, and Physics had a score on the ACT Science Test that was two-and-a-half points higher than students reporting that they took less than three years of natural science courses.

For all students, regardless of ethnicity, ACT scores deliver a consistent message—if you plan to attend college you must graduate with the skills needed for college-level coursework. Our research clearly shows that the only way to do so is to take challenging college-prep courses in high school.

College Readiness a Concern for Hispanic Students

Hispanic students increased their college readiness slightly in math and reading this year, and held steady in science and English. However, our College Readiness Benchmarks indicate that the majority of all students—including Hispanic students—lack some of the skills they’ll need during their first year of college in each of the four subject areas (English, math, reading, and science). These benchmarks are scores on the four ACT tests that indicate a high probability that a student will earn a “C” or higher in the respective courses during their first year of college.

For Hispanic students, this year’s scores reveal:

• Less than 48 percent reached or exceeded the College Readiness Benchmark score—18—on the ACT English Test, indicating they are likely to earn a “C” or higher in a first-year college English composition course.
• Only one-third (34%) reached or exceeded the benchmark score of 21 on the ACT Reading Test, indicating they are ready to succeed in first-year college social science courses.
• Just 25 percent met or exceeded the College Readiness Benchmark on the ACT Math Test (a score of 22), indicating a high probability of earning a “C” or higher in college algebra.
• Only 12 percent met or exceeded the ACT Science Test benchmark score of 24, indicating readiness for a college biology course.
• Just 9 percent met the College Readiness Benchmarks in all four subject areas.

These results suggest that too many students are not academically prepared to succeed in their first year of college. Schools need to identify students who are falling behind and provide assistance at an earlier age, to ensure that they are taking the courses they need to prepare them for success after high school. In addition, schools and communities nationwide must look at the quality of the courses being taken by all students.

In 2005, ACT released a study titled On Course for Success, an examination of ten high schools that are teaching a diverse student population and producing a higher than average proportion of graduates that meet ACT’s College Readiness Benchmarks. Results of this study substantiated the effectiveness of several key approaches to education:

• High-level college-oriented content
• Well-qualified teachers
• Flexible teaching styles
• Tutorial support for students needing help.