Even students who earn good grades in their high school core courses are not necessarily ready for college and work. About one-fourth to nearly two-thirds of ACT-tested graduates who take higher-level courses beyond core have not demonstrated a capacity to handle first-year college-level work in at least one subject area. Ironically, however, many students are receiving high grades in their high school courses, leading them to believe they are ready for college and work.
The chart below compares the course grades that ACT-tested 2005 high school graduates earned in Algebra II and Physics to their success at meeting ACT College Readiness Benchmarks in Mathematics and Science, respectively.
ACT College Readiness Benchmark Attainment by Course Grade (2005 High School Graduates)*
* Based on 764,348 (Algebra II) and 204,139 (Physics) high school students who took the ACT and indicated that they would graduate from high school in 2005.
How can 43 percent of the students who received an A or B in Algebra II not be ready for college algebra? Whether as a result of grade inflation or a lack of challenging course content, it is clear that course grades are not accurately reflecting what is needed to meet the challenges of a college education and global, competitive workplace.
How can K–12 educators better ensure the quality of high school core courses? QualityCore™, ACT's new high school instructional improvement program, enables teachers with model lessons, model units, formative assessment item pools, and end-of-course assessments to help improve the quality, consistency, and rigor of core high school courses.
Learn more . . .
- Why rigorous core courses are important for both college AND work
(PDF; 20 pages, 414KB)