College Ready???

Disclosure: I spent my last two years of high school working as a Peer College Counselor.  That means that I worked in the school's college office and helped students throughout the application process: from selecting a college to helping find scholarships and other financial aid.  During that time, I learned A LOT about the college admissions process and developed a lot of strong opinions relating to the matter, including standardized testing (another subject that I will probably rant much about in the future).

Every year, the makers of the ACT test do this report on college readiness based on the scores achieved on their test for the previous year.  They set benchmark scores for each subtest based on data they've collected.  If you meet or exceed these marks, that say you are 50% likely to get at least a B in a corresponding college course and 75% likely to get at least a C.  They are (college courses are in parentheses): 18 in English (Composition), 22 Math (Algebra), 21 Reading (Social Sciences), 24 Science (Biology).  Now keep in mind that only about 49% of graduating seniors actually took the ACT in high school.  But, based on 2010-2011 scores, guess what?  Its another year of gains!!!  We are getting better and more college ready!  Good news, right?

Sure, except for the fact that only about 25% of that 49% actually hit the marks on all the subtests.  Again, this is an improvement!  The national rate has gone up a percentage point every year for the last for years now.

Now, things are slightly better here in California, where only 24% of graduating seniors took this test (which is still 99,000 students).  However, 30% of the students taking the test hit all 4 benchmarks.  This is a tiny dip from our continual upward rate over at least the past 5 years, but still better.  Where California students most strongly outperformed the national average was on the Math test (go us!), where 57% hit the benchmark, compared to 45% nationally.  

If you want to look at the data and the full report yourself: http://www.act.org/research/policymakers/cccr11/index.html   I recommend everyone at least spend some time glancing around.  There's a lot of implications with all of this data.