Survey Shows Writing Skills Most Important to College Teachers Not Always Emphasized in High School Instruction

April 8, 2003

IOWA CITY, Iowa—Although college faculty and high school teachers across the U.S. largely agree on the writing skills that are most important for students to possess, they disagree in one key area: The group of writing skills that college instructors believe are most important for entering college students to have—grammar and usage skills—are considered to be least important by high school teachers, according to recent results from ACT's National Curriculum Survey of high school teachers and college faculty who teach entry-level courses.

This apparent disconnect may be one reason why a significant number of first-year college students need remedial help with their writing skills. Recent studies have suggested that as many as half of today's college freshmen must take at least one remedial course in college, and more than four in ten of these students take a remedial writing course.

"Overall, we're seeing a good degree of consistency between what high school English teachers and college freshman composition instructors think students should know," said Cynthia Schmeiser, Ph.D., ACT's vice president for development. "Still, it seems that many high school graduates don't have all the skills they need to succeed in college-level coursework, so any discrepancy between college expectations and high school instruction warrants attention."

ACT is adding an optional writing test to its college entrance and placement exam starting in the 2004–2005 school year. The results of the curriculum survey will be used to guide development of the new writing test.

"Because the ACT Assessment is a curriculum-based exam that measures students' academic achievement, it would be impossible for us to design our new writing test without knowing the specific skills high schools are teaching and colleges are expecting their incoming freshmen to know," said Schmeiser. "The curriculum survey gives us these answers."

The survey results indicate that, among six general writing skills categories, grammar and usage skills rank highest in terms of importance at the college level. At the high school level, in contrast, these skills rank lowest of the six and receive the least instructional attention. The following chart illustrates these findings.

"High school teachers understand that grammar and usage skills are important, but they devote more attention to teaching skills such as writing strategy, sentence structure, and organization," said Schmeiser. "It is widely agreed that grammar and usage skills should not be taught in isolation. However, due to their developmental nature, they must be continually refined and reinforced over time. Our results suggest high schools may not be effectively integrating instruction of these skills into their English curricula."

Student performance on the ACT Assessment also supports this finding. Forty-six percent of the graduating seniors in 2002 who took the ACT Assessment scored at or below a score of 19 on the ACT English Test. These scores suggest that these students are marginally prepared or not ready for college-level coursework and are likely struggling with such fundamental English skills as:

• using punctuation to clarify meaning
• solving basic grammatical problems such as subject-verb agreement
• determining the clearest and most logical way to link clauses

"We need to dramatically improve the communication of college expectations to high schools," said Schmeiser. "It is important for schools, parents, and students to know what skills and knowledge they need to be prepared for college-level work. When high school teachers and curriculum specialists understand what colleges expect students to know and be able to do, they can use these expectations to review their high school English courses to make sure they are focusing on the rigorous skills needed in college."

ACT's Standards for Transition are receiving attention and support from colleges and universities across the U.S. as a way to communicate their expectations to high schools. The Standards for Transition describe the skills and knowledge students have attained based on their scores on the ACT Assessment.

"Colleges have been using the Standards for Transition to translate their admission and course placement requirements into the language of instruction," said Schmeiser. "The standards are helping everyone understand what's expected of entering college students much more than a test score can do alone. Defining these expectations is a necessary first step in raising the level of writing skills our students acquire."

Schmeiser cautions that adding a writing test to the ACT Assessment will not automatically cause students' writing skills to improve. "Effective writing skills are not learned overnight," said Schmeiser. "It will take time, not only to communicate those skills students need to have to be ready for college, but to 'raise the bar' by incorporating more rigorous skills into our high school writing courses."

Schmeiser noted that early assessment and intervention are keys to better learning and academic preparation. "The best way to insure that students possess the skills they need is to start early in assessing the skills they already have learned, monitor their progress in developing these skills, and make timely instructional interventions to strengthen those skills that are necessary for them to be ready for college. All of this takes time, but we are working with school districts that are showing it can be done."

ACT conducts its one-of-a-kind National Curriculum Survey every three years, surveying thousands of high school teachers and college instructors across the country. The results are used to determine the content of the ACT Assessment as well as other companion programs to the ACT. This year's curriculum survey is being used not only to guide the development of the new writing test, but also to confirm the specifications for the other tests in the ACT Assessment: English, mathematics, reading, and science.

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