Despite a record number of 1.2 million test-takers (40 percent of all high school seniors), the average American College Test (ACT) scores remained the same as last year. The ACT uses high-school curriculum standards to test achievement. It is considered more content-based than the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT).* The results revealed, however, that a large majority of students are not ready for college-level math and science and are not challenging themselves enough in their high school coursework. ACT studies have found that a quarter of freshmen at four-year colleges don't return for their sophomore year and only one-half of those enrolled graduate within five years. According to Richard L. Ferguson, the organization's chief executive officer, ”[F]ar too few college-bound students are taking even the basic coursework necessary to prepare for college, let alone pushing themselves by taking higher-level courses. This is one of the reasons why college remediation and dropout rates are so high.”

FINDINGS

Poor Preparation and Scores in Math and Science

• Only 45 percent of seniors who took the ACT test had three or more years of high school science, including physics, under their belts, and only 39 percent had taken four years of math.
• Only 40 percent of test-takers overall were prepared for college-level algebra, and only 26 percent overall were prepared for college biology.
• Low student scores in math and science, ACT officials assert, are correlated with the level of challenge in students' upper-level high school curriculum. Fewer than two-thirds (61.9 percent) of tested graduates took the recommended coursework for college-bound students.

ACT Achievement and the Core College-Prep Curriculum

• ACT score results have consistently indicated that students who take the recommended core curriculum in high school—four years of English and at least three years each of mathematics (algebra and higher), natural sciences, and social sciences—are likely to fare better in college than those who don't. Graduates in the class of 2003 who took the core coursework earned an average ACT composite score of 21.8 compared to the 19.3 who did not.
• Students who take higher-level courses beyond the core curriculum tend to earn higher ACT scores and be better prepared for college. Graduates in 2003 that took four or more years of math in high school earned an average ACT composite score of 23.4, compared to the 19.4 for those who took less than four years in math. In addition, those who took three or more years of science, including physics, earned an average composite score of 22.6 compared to the 19.4 of those who did not.
• A large majority (67 percent) of students received a score of 18 or higher on the ACT English test, indicating most are ready to enroll in college composition courses. *
• Fewer than half (45 percent) of students who graduated in 2003 took three or more years of science, including physics, in high school, while even fewer (39 percent) took four or more years of math.

ACT Scores and Race, Ethnicity, and Gender

• Overall, Asian-American students fared the best with a composite score of 21.8. White students scored 21.7 overall; Puerto Rican/Hispanic students scored 19.0; American Indians/Alaska natives scored 18.7; Mexican American/Chicano students scored 18.3; and African-Americans scored 16.9.
• Only 5 percent of African-American students were prepared for biology; only 10 percent were ready for college algebra.
• Students in every racial/ethnic group category who took the core college-preparatory course curriculum earned significantly higher composite scores—10-15 percent higher—than those that did not.
• There was not a large discrepancy in men's and women's scores—men had an average score of 21 and women scored slightly lower at 20.8. However, more women take the test so their scores represent a broader spectrum. In 2003, 56 percent of test-takers are women compared to only 44 percent of those who were men.

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* The ACT has a science component to its tests; the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) does not. SAT does have a writing test that will become mandatory in 2005 and the ACT has no writing test. In a recent article, The New York Times (www.nytimes.com) addresses the basic differences in the two tests:

The relative importance of writing skills versus math and science skills has become a major marketing difference between the two learning college entrance exams, the SAT and ACT. ACT, the leading college entrance exam in the Middle West…tests students on math, science, English, and reading. As of February 2005, ACT will include an optional writing test. But last month, ACT said that it expected no more than half of the colleges and universities to which it sent scores to require the writing test. (Lewin, 8/20/03)

The October issue of AAC&U News will feature new SAT results.

For more information about ACT, visit www.act.org.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Virtually all graduates in Colorado and Illinois take the ACT test as part of state-mandated testing.
  
• The national average composite score for racial/ethnic minorities rose slightly for 2003 for the first time since 1997.
  
• In states where all students are required to take the ACT, the scores between women and men did not differ.
  
• Men continue to score higher in science and math; women earn higher average scores on English and reading tests.