Recent ACT scores should be a call to ACTion.

I was struck with the realization the other day that I am getting old when my little baby brother called to ask for my assistance registering for the ACT. I suppose now that he towers above me at 6’2” and is old enough to start applying for college, I need to stop hugging the delusion that he is just going to be my baby brother forever.

The ACT is a big rite of passage. For any student wishing to go to college and get a decent job in today’s competitive economy, the ACT is the first major monster. For students, it seems the entire world regulated and determined by a long string of standardized tests. I myself have taken all of my MCTs, my SATPs, the SAT, the ACT (twice), now I find myself taking 4 different rounds of the PRAXIS and my handy little reminder to go register for the GRE stays in the top left hand corner of my planner. Just when you think you are done, you aren’t.

ACT just released a report on the 2010 test scores called the Condition of College and Career Readiness. It is odd, because even though national average score dipped ever so slightly from 21.1 to 21.0, the number of students who passed all four subject areas of the test rose from to 24%. Granted, the fact that it is on the rise is promising, but if you just take a minute to think about what that statistic means, it is really scary. Only 24% of test-takes met benchmarks on all four subject areas of the test. That means that 3 out of 4 students are going to need help in either English, reading, math, or science when they get to college. National English scores (typically the highest) dropped from 69% of test takers prepared for college curriculum to 66%.

So how does Mississippi match up with the rest of the country you might wonder? Only Ten percent of Mississippi ACT-takers meet benchmarks in all four subject areas. The average composite score is 18.8 and only 53% of MS test takes are prepared for college English curriculum. Asians and Pacific islanders outscore every other demographic in every single subject area on the ACT, even English.

The report also found that “under current conditions, students do not have a reasonable chance of becoming ready for college unless they take additional higher-level courses beyond the minimum core. And even when students take substantial numbers of additional courses, no more than 3/4ths of them are ready for first year college coursework. This suggests that the quality and intensity- in other words, the rigor- of the high school curriculum need to be improved.”

Basically, what we’re doing, is not enough. Labeling everything “Adequate” is not enough. Taking the minimum required coursework, is not enough. Apparently, the only way that the education system can work for kids who want to go to college is if those kids take the initiative to sign themselves up for advanced classes beyond the required “core.”