ACT & college readiness

A recent article in Education Week I came across  titled "Most Students Still Not College-Ready, ACT Report Find" highlights the following:

• 60% of the class of 2012 test takers failed to meet the benchmarks in 2 out of 4 tested subjects
• ACT’s “ college readiness benchmarks” are set to predict a student has a 75% chance of earning a C or higher or a 50% chance of earning a B or higher in a typical first year college course
  
• The output of educator’s focus on college and career readiness is not apparent yet
• An achievement gap was evident among race and ethnicity with the following scoring highest to lowest: Asians, Whites, Pacific Islanders, Hispanic, American Indian, and African Americans
• Students who take a more challenging caseload are more likely to graduate high school and do well on the college-entrance exam
• Some states now force all juniors to take the ACT, raising the question of how hard students try on the test

This article also pointed out that though slight improvements are visible in the areas of math and science, students are still not meeting benchmarks. One of the suggestions that seems common sense but may be overlooked by students, families, and even educators due to graduation requirements, etc. is the fact that having a more challenging caseload increases a student’s chance for success. “For instance, only 8 percent of students who took fewer than three years of math were considered "college ready," where 54 percent of students who took three years or more of math were college-ready” (Adams, 2012, p. 7). The full article is available through the EBSCO online database.