Joanne Jacob uncovered a study about the 1.2 million students who took the ACT this year. The average score was 20.8 (scale of 1 to 36) - but ACT claims that more than half the test takers may not be ready for college-level math or science courses:
This year, the ACT examined test scores to evaluate the skills that students possess for first-year math, science and English courses in college.
Researchers concluded that just 26 percent of test-takers were ready to handle the course work in science and 40 percent in math. In English, 67 percent of students were prepared.
"We've heard a lot of talk recently about the inadequacy of students' writing skills," Ferguson said. "However, it appears that the more critical problems are in science and math."...
The ACT's average composite score for whites was unchanged this year at 21.7, but it improved for all racial and ethnic minorities for the first time since 1997. Broken down by the ACT's race and ethnicity categories, Asian Americans scored 21.8, up from 21.6 last year; Hispanics, 19, up from 18.8; American Indians, 18.7, up from 18.6; Mexican Americans, 18.3, up from 18.2; African Americans, 16.9, up from 16.8.
Ferguson said black students were less likely than others to take tough, college-prep courses and "often don't receive the information and guidance they need to properly plan for college."
Another piece of evidence that kids who make it as far as senior year aren't necessarily given the skills to make it through college, even if they take the ACT in anticipation of attending college.
I have to quote one of Joanne's commenters in full:
I keep telling everybody this (but nobody listens to me)!!!!!!!!!! I teach math at a state university with about 18,000 students. This semester alone we are running twenty-six remedial math sections of forty students apiece. (For those who would probably be taking these classes, that's 1,040 students.) At any given time, 1 out of 18 of our students are *in* remedial math classes, not to mention how many of those not in the class have already completed their remedial math. The waiting list for these classes is lengthy, and they are constantly bombarded by students desperately trying to add the class so that they can finish their degrees in only five years. Unfortunately, we cannot open new sections. Even though we import most of our TA's who teach these courses, we STILL can't get enough funding or staff. The state doesn't fully fund these classes, on the grounds that this stuff is already being taught in high school. (!)
Scary.
Posted by kswygert at August 21, 2003 12:02 PM