* Tennessee’s average score on the national ACT exam plunged a full point to its lowest level in five years, despite a new curriculum and tougher standards designed to boost the state’s standing.
Education leaders are attributing the drop to 100 percent participation for the first time. The scores counted were from 2010 high school graduates, required to take the ACT or SAT in either their junior or senior years. Both measure college readiness, and most universities require one on applications. The ACT is used as a qualifier for the state’s lottery scholarship.
“We tested more students than ever,” said Dan Long, executive director of the Tennessee Department of Education’s Office of Assessment. “We have a lot more kids meeting those benchmarks than we thought we did.”
Between 2009 and 2010, Tennessee’s composite ACT score dropped from 20.6 to 19.6, ranking it fourth from the bottom of the nation. A perfect score is 36, and the national average is 21.
Tennessee got the number of test takers up from 92 percent last year by offering weekday testing in some areas. While state law requires all graduating seniors to have been tested at some point, some were missed. But another issue is convincing 100 percent to do their best when students know the scores aren’t tied to graduation.
“Kids understand what counts and what doesn’t,” Long said.
In Massachusetts, which led the nation with an average score of 24, fewer than a quarter of graduates were tested. Most students there choose the SAT.
Alan Richard, spokesman for the Southern Regional Education Board, an Atlanta-based non-profit that tracks education trends in the Southeast, said Kentucky saw a similar drop when it started requiring all students to take the ACT.
“Tennessee essentially added the last 8 percent of students who weren’t taking the ACT, which means most of the new students taking the test likely did not score well,” he said.
State officials said they expect scores to increase when this year’s sophomores — who as freshmen became the first class affected by the tougher new graduation standards — sit for the test.
District-by-district results were not yet available.
ACT proponents say scores are a good predictor of how well students will do in college. According to the data, released this week, a smaller percentage of Tennessee students are prepared for college-level coursework in four core academic subjects — English, math, social studies and science.
Sixteen percent were ready for college in all four areas, down from 18 percent last year.
*Source: http://www.dnj.com/article/20100821/NEWS07/100821001/1047/ACT+score+plummets+for+Tenn.+schools
No comments:
Post a Comment