Alabama High School ACT Results Show Increases And Some Disparities
Scores for the 50,000 Alabama public high school graduates who took the ACT as an exit exam in the class of 2015 show an increase in the number of students who are college-ready in English, math, science, and reading. But the overall percentage of students prepared to successfully do college work lags behind the rest of the country, according to data released this week.
The results for this first full class of Alabama students taking the ACT as a high school exit exam also shows a persistent gap between the scores of blacks, whites, and Asians statewide.
“We’ve been working on those gaps for over a decade,” says Dr. Sherrill Paris, Alabama’s senior deputy superintendent of schools. “We really are dependent upon the teacher level to continue to reduce that gap.”
The report on the class of 2015 also showed:
- 44 percent did not meet the benchmarks in any of the four areas tested on the ACT – English, science, math, and reading. ACT benchmarks are different for each test. Students who reach those benchmarks theoretically have at least a 50-percent chance of making a B or better on college work in that subject.
- 52 percent of Asian students, 35 percent of white students and 7 percent of black students met benchmarks in three or more subject areas.
- 16 percent of Alabama’s students were proficient on benchmarks in all four subject areas, compared to 28 percent nationally.
- In English, reading and science, at least 10 percent of students were only 1 or 2 points below the benchmark.
The ACT benchmark score is 18 in English, 23 in science, and 22 in math and 22 in reading.
Tests in the state’s elementary, middle and high schools are aligned with ACT.The class of 2015 took the test as 11th graders in 2014. Parris says the ACT testing program helps education leaders gauge academic performance and prepare them for what lies ahead.
“We know that it opens a door that many of these students never looked at previously,” she says. “Many of these students did not consider taking the ACT. Not because of the cost of the exam, but because no one in their family attended college.”
Alabama students scored an average of 18.8 out of a possible 36 on the tests. In 2013, Alabama students had an average ACT composite score of 20.1. That was before the pool of test-takers included all graduating seniors – a change that brought a 46 percent increase in the number of test-takers, according to the report. In most states, only students who are potentially college-bound take the ACT.
Rebecca Mims of the state Department of Education said while the average score dropped compared to previous years, they’ve received some good reports.
‘We have received phone calls about students who have received scholarships and they never would have even considered taking the exam,” she says. “And we had one who was not going to college. He was joining the army, and now he has received an appointment to West Point.”
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