Blog

ACT has just released results for 2010 test takers and there seems to be some cause for optimism in the results.  ACT reports that the proportion of students meeting their recommended college readiness benchmarks increased by 1% this past school year and has increased by 3% since 2006.  While the proportion of students meeting all of the benchmark scores remains somewhat depressing - 24% of all tested students - the improvement is still good news. 

This is better news when one considers how rapidly the ACT testing population has grown.  The number of students taking the test has grown by one-third since 2006, from 1.2 million to 1.6 million students.  What may not be understood is that a lot of this growth is due to a growing trend to require all students to take the ACT in several states.  Six states (Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Wyoming) require all eleventh graders to take the test, and their results are included in these composites.  In addition, the rate of student testing has increased significantly in several states that are traditionally among the lower performing on NAEP, particularly South Carolina (34th) and Florida (35th). 

Additionally, the improvement on these benchmarks comes at a time when much larger numbers of students that would not typically be considered college bound are participating in testing.  So while we’ll join in with the obligatory “Yes, it is disappointing that so many students don’t meet college readiness benchmarks, and yes, the size of the achievement gap is embarrassing”, let’s also give at least a golfers round of applause to schools for making meaningful improvement on this metric.