- Improving College & Career Readiness
- About This Report
- College Readiness
- Educational/Career Aspirations
- Access & Preparation
- Academic Performance
- A First Look at STEM
- Looking Back at the Class of 2012
- Academic Achievement & Academic Behaviors
- Policies & Practices to Increase Readiness
- Notes
- 2013 ACT National and State Scores
ACT College Readiness Benchmarks by Level of High School Preparation
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Within a subject area, graduates who took a core curriculum or more in high school were more likely to meet the corresponding ACT College Readiness Benchmark in 2013 than graduates who took less than a core curriculum (defined as 4 years of English and 3 years each of mathematics, science, and social studies).
The largest curriculum-based difference in Benchmark attainment rates was in Mathematics. Graduates who completed 3 or more years of mathematics were more likely to meet the Mathematics Benchmark—by 39 percentage points—than were graduates who took less than 3 years of mathematics.
Note: Data reflect subject-specific curriculum. For example, English "Core or More" results pertain to students who took at least 4 years of English, regardless of courses taken in other subject areas.
Percent of ACT-Tested High School Graduates Meeting ACT College Readiness Benchmarks by Number of Years of Courses Taken Within Subject, 2013
Graph reads: In 2013, 67% of ACT-tested high school graduates who took at least a core high school curriculum in English met the ACT College Readiness Benchmark in English, whereas 36% of graduates who took less than a core curriculum in English did so.
| Subject | Core or More | Less than Core |
|---|---|---|
| English | 67% | 36% |
| Reading | 46% | 32% |
| Mathematics | 46% | 7% |
| Science | 40% | 17% |
