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The national average composite score on the ACT test was 21.1 in 2008, the testing organization reported Wednesday in its annual compilation of scores.
That composite is down from last year’s 21.2 but equal to the 2006 average. The composite rolls up scores on the ACT’s reading, math and science sections. (The highest score possible on any ACT test is 36. In 2008, 22 Colorado students had perfect ACT scores.)
Some 1.42 million students took the test, representing 43 percent of all 2008 high school graduates. That’s an increase of 9 percent from 2007.
In Colorado, 50,420 students who graduated this year took the test, recording a composite score of 20.5, the highest in the last five years. (The lowest was 20.2 in 2005.) The average test scores were 19.8 for English, 20.3 for math, 20.8 for reading and 20.4 for science.
The composite was 20.3 for males and 20.6 for females. The composite and average scores for black and Hispanic students were lower than for test takers as a whole.
Colorado, Illinois and Michigan are the only states where all 11th graders take the ACT tests. Illinois’ composite was 20.7, while Michigan’s was 19.6.
But, the more interesting, and unsettling, statistics in the ACT report are the ones that measure college readiness.
Using what it calls College Readiness Benchmarks – the test scores that predict at least an even chance of success in college-level composition, social science, algebra and biology courses – ACT reports the percentage of test takers who achieved those benchmarks.
Only 22 percent of students met or surpassed the benchmarks in all four areas – English, reading, math and science.
The percentage of students meeting the benchmarks in individual areas were 68 percent in English, 43 percent in math, 53 percent in reading and 28 percent in science. As with the composite, those results were basically flat.
ěWe still have far too many high school graduates who are not ready for college-level work,î said Richard L. Ferguson, ACT’s chief executive officer and chairman. ěThere is much work left to be done to ensure that all students graduate from high school with the skills they need to succeed at the next level.î
In Colorado, only 20 percent of students met all four benchmarks for college readiness. The state percentages in each subject also were below the national figures: Colorado scored 62 percent in English, 38 percent in math, 48 percent in reading and 25 percent in science.
Only 5 percent of black Colorado students met all four standards. The percentages for other demographic groups were 7 percent for Native Americans, 26 percent for whites, 6 percent for Hispanics and 25 percent of Asians.
The annual ACT report also breaks out scores based on the rigor of classes students take in high school. (The minimum core curriculum is defined as four years of English; algebra 1 and 2 and geometry; U.S. history, world history and American government; and general science, biology and chemistry.
Colorado students who took those courses or more rigorous ones – 56 percent of test takers - had a 2008 composite score of 22.1. Students who took less than a core curriculum had a composite of 18.5.
The ACT also offers an optional writing test. Only 6,219 Colorado students took that test. Their average score was 8, compared to 7.3 nationwide.
The 2008 ACT report covers all students who graduated last spring and took the test in their sophomore, junior or senior years. Nationwide, 43 percent of ’08 grads took the test. (The Colorado figures reported by ACT differ slightly from the results reported by the state Department of Education. The state report covers only public-school students; the ACT stats include all students.)
The ACT is one of two national college entrance exams. In 2007, about 1.5 million students took the other one, the SAT test, including 11,142 in Colorado. (SAT national stats for 2008 are expected to be released in a few weeks.)
While the tests have many similarities, the ACT is considered by many experts to be more content-based – measuring what students learned in their high school classes - while the SAT is felt to be more oriented toward testing broader critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Click here for ACT website.
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