Bad News/ Good News

The ACT scores for 2011 high school graduates came out last month, and the data for the West is quite a mixed bag (see table below). From a national perspective, the scores don’t tell a particularly pretty story: only 25 percent of these recent high school students were fully prepared for college in all areas assessed by ACT (English composition, reading, mathematics, and science), and the 15 WICHE states, on average, were almost identical to this national statistic, with 25.4 percent of recent high school students being assessed as fully prepared.

Within the overall averages and between states, however, the story changes greatly. Two Western states – California at 30 percent and Washington at 35 percent – had a share of their ACT test takers scoring substantially above the national average. This would sound great for those two states, except for one small problem: relatively few high school students in these two states actually take the ACT (one-quarter in California and one-fifth in Washington). And those students who do take the test are the ones who intend to attend more selective institutions out of state; thus, their scores are bound to be higher, on average, than those of most high school graduates in these states. For states that rely more heavily on the ACT, South Dakota and Montana clearly set the high marks in the West: with more than 80 percent of South Dakota students taking the ACT and approximately 60 percent in Montana doing so, 29 percent scored as fully prepared for college in all areas in these two states. Unfortunately, three Western states fell far short of even the shockingly low national statistic: Arizona (18 percent), New Mexico (17 percent) and Wyoming (18 percent).

The scores within the scores – that is, the independent scores for composition, reading, mathematics, and science – also varied substantially.

English Composition and Reading: Nationally, 66 percent of the ACT-taking high school graduates were assessed as college-ready in English composition, with 52 percent scoring ready to read at the college level. Washington (76 percent in composition and 64 percent in reading) and Montana (75 percent in composition and 6 3percent in reading) led the West in these areas of college preparation.

Mathematics: Only 45 percent of students nationally were assessed by ACT as being ready for college mathematics. Washington (60 percent) and California (57 percent) were the top Western states on this dimension, scoring well above the national average—though these scores were no doubt skewed upward by the selectivity bias in these two states.

Science: Nationally, an abysmal 30 percent of students tested ready for college science. No wonder we are having trouble attracting students into the STEM fields: they simply aren’t prepared for them. The West performed a bit above the national level, with 10 of the 15 WICHE states scoring at or above the national average. Washington (40 percent), South Dakota (37 percent), and Montana (35 percent) led the way in the West.

Unfortunately, two states – Arizona and New Mexico – trailed all other Western states in each of the four areas assessed. Though the scores for Colorado, North Dakota, and Wyoming don’t look particularly good either, there’s a reason: virtually all high school students in those three states take the ACT, whether they intend to go to college or not; the state scores are deflated somewhat by exceptionally high ACT participation rates.

Share of High School Graduates in 2011 Taking the ACT Who Were Assessed as Prepared for College in the Following Areas (in Percentages)

Beating the national average in the share of high school graduates prepared for college can hardly be taken as good news for the Western states because the national numbers are so scary bad. Far too many graduates of our high schools, both nationally and in the West, simply aren’t prepared well to succeed in college.

Public policy in the West must address these distressing statistics. And this is beginning to occur in at least three separate but related veins of public policy. The Common Core Standards for English language arts and mathematics being developed by the National Governors Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, and the State Higher Education Executive Officers will help increase the college-level competencies of high school graduates in three areas measured by the ACT – composition, reading, and mathematics. Various state efforts to synchronize high school exit standards with college entrance and workforce standards will also help in this regard. And the national focus on improving remedial/developmental education will also assist, both in helping to bring those students lacking college skills up to college readiness more successfully than in the past and in helping to redefine more clearly what “college ready” means.

So the data are the bad news. But the major activity underway to redress the bad statistics is the good news.

–David Longanecker

September 2011  | Share this on Twitter | Post this on Facebook