ACT scores rise again - Center for Public Education

Overview

Title: ACT High School Profile Report: The Graduating Class of 2007

Author(s): The ACT

Research Methods: Descriptive statistics

Publisher: The ACT

Peer Reviewed: No

Released: August 2007

The question(s): How well did the Class of 2007 perform on the ACT college entrance exam? Which graduates took the ACT and what was the percent of race/ethnicity and gender participation? What percent of students completed the core curriculum in high school? What impact did rigorous coursework have on achievement? What percent of students are prepared for college coursework by subject area? To what extent did student aspirations affect math performance? To which colleges and universities did students send their test results?

The study: Across the nation 1.3 million students from the Class of 2007 took the ACT college admission and placement exam during their sophomore, junior, or senior years. The exam consists of four subject area tests: English, mathematics, reading, and science, which are scored on a scale of one to thirty-six. Students receive a composite score, which is the average of the four subject tests. Although Illinois and Colorado require all students to take the exam, typically in most other states only students applying to a college that requires the ACT for admission take the test. One point to remember is that the ACT is not necessarily an accurate measure of achievement since it does not account for students who are not college-bound or students who drop out.

The ACT National Report:
http://www.act.org/news/data/07/data.html

The ACT State by State Reports:
http://www.act.org/news/data/07/statemenu.html

Once again ACT scores improved even while more students took the test according the ACT High School Profile Report: The graduating class of 2007. The report says it is the third year—in the last five years—that scores have increased. The increase was spread among all student groups except Black students whose scores dropped from 2006 but remained higher than they were in 2003.

The report also found that more students were ready for college-level coursework. More students taking the test in 2007 scored at or above ACT’s College Readiness Benchmarks in all four subjects than students taking the test in previous years. However, students who did not complete rigorous courses such as Trigonometry and Physics were less likely to be college ready.

The Findings

ACT Scores

The nation’s graduating Class of 2007 had an average composite score of 21.2 on the ACT, which was higher than 2006 (21.1) and 2003 (20.8).
Scores increased from 2003 to 2007 for all four subject tests that make up the composite. English increased from 20.3 to 20.7, mathematics from 20.6 to 21.0, reading from 21.2 to 21.5, and science from 20.8 to 21.0.
All five reported racial/ethnic groups saw increases in their composite scores from 2003 to 2006. Asian American students had the largest increase (21.8 to 22.6), while Black students (16.9 to 17.0), Hispanic students (18.5 to 18.7), and American Indian students (18.7 to 18.9) also showed modest gains.

College Readiness

Across all four subjects, more students scored at the College Readiness Benchmarks in 2007 than in 2003. This indicates that this cohort of students are ready to succeed in first-year credit-bearing college courses in the specific subjects ACT tests.
The percent of students who were college ready in math increased for three consecutive years from forty percent in 2004 to forty-three percent in 2007.
The percent of test-takers who were college ready in science increased for the second year in a row from twenty-six percent in 2006 to twenty-eight percent in 2007.
The percent of test-takers scoring at the College Readiness Benchmarks in all four subjects increased by two percentage points from 2006 to 2007 (twenty-one to twenty-three percent).

Core Course Rigor

Only fifteen percent of students whose highest math courses were Geometry and Algebra II met the math College Readiness Benchmark. In contrast, forty percent of those students who took at least trigonometry met the College Readiness Benchmark.
Results were similar in science where only twenty percent of the students who took general science, biology, and chemistry reached the science College Readiness Benchmarks. Forty percent of those who took physics instead of general science did so.

Test Takers

An all-time high of 1.3 million students in the Class of 2007 took the ACT exam. This is an eleven percentage point increase since 2003.
The increase was greater for minority students. Black test-takers increased by eighteen percentage points, while the percent of Hispanic test-takers grew even more with a twenty-three percentage point increase between 2003 and 2007.

The Caveats

Although a majority of students in twenty-six states take the ACT, scores are not necessarily representative of the achievement of all high school students since some do not take the exam. Also, in many states, students who drop out or do not expect to attend college do not typically take the exam.
Even though the ACT is a curriculum based exam, it does not necessarily align with each state’s standards.

Conclusion

The report indicates that recent high school graduates are scoring higher and are more prepared for college, even though there are more students who, in the past, may not have considered college an option but are now taking the ACT. The results also show that scores would rise and more students would be better prepared for college if they took more rigorous courses while in high school, especially in math and science.

Since rigorous courses are an important ingredient for students’ preparedness for college coursework, school board members should evaluate whether more advanced courses—such as trigonometry and physics—are available for all students. School board members should determine if rigorous courses are offered and ensure that students are on track to take these advanced classes from the time they enter high school (if not sooner). Although it is not an easy task, the payoff for preparing more students for college is tremendous.

Posted: August 15, 2007