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August 15, 2007
Good news for American high schools
Yes it’s true!! There is good news about American high schools. Although high schools have been taking a lot of heat, more high school students are prepared to enter college then ever before. According to the latest results from the ACT exam released today, the Class of 2007 had higher scores and a greater percentage of graduates prepared for college coursework than anytime in the last five years.
Other findings include:
Record high number of test takers. Since 2003 there has been an eleven percent increase in the number of students taking the ACT. More impressive is the fact that Black and Hispanic students were a major factor in the increase, with an increase of eighteen and twenty-three percentage points respectively.
The average national ACT composite score has increased from 20.8 to 21.2 (out of a possible thirty-six) since 2003. During the same time period all racial/ethnic groups, including Black and Hispanic students, increased their scores as well.
Students who took more advanced math courses like trigonometry were more likely to be prepared for college algebra than students whose highest course was algebra II. Similarly, students who took physics were twice as likely to be prepared for college biology as those who took no more than chemistry.
BoardBuzz is particularly excited about the increase in the number of students taking the ACT. While it may not take much to get us excited, the increase shows that more students are seeing college in their future, and that’s exciting! It’s also exciting that scores continue to rise even as more students take the ACT.
While college admission tests like ACT and SAT are not necessarily the most accurate measures of high school achievement, today’s ACT results provide some indication that there is indeed some good news coming out of our nation’s high schools. For more on the today’s ACT results check out our friends at the Center for Public Education here.
Posted August 15, 2007 4:58 PM |
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