Tuesday, September 25, 2012
SAT, ACT: Most high school kids lack skills for college
More than half of 2012 high school graduates who took a college entrance exam did not have all of the skills they will need to succeed in college, or a career, a pair of recent reports conclude.
Findings released Monday by the non-profit College Board show that 57% of 2012 graduating seniors who took the SAT, which it owns, earned a combined score below what it says is necessary to show that students can earn a B-minus or better in the first year at a four-year college.
A report released last month by the Iowa City-based ACT found that at least 60% of 2012 high school graduates who took its test are similarly at risk of not succeeding in college.
The tests measure different skills, but colleges that require standardized admissions tests generally accept scores from either test. Among details:
Bob Schaeffer, spokesman for FairTest, the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, said Monday that the dip in SAT scores show that high-stakes testing programs such as the federal No Child Left Behind law "have been a colossal failure."
The SAT and ACT reports attribute the relatively flat scores partly to an increasingly diverse pool of students taking their tests. The College Board, for example, reports a 61% increase since 2008 in the number of low-income test takers, based on requests for fee waivers.
College Board Vice President Jim Montoya said Monday that average scores can increase if more students have access to a rigorous college-prep curriculum. "This report is a call to action," Montoya said.
The increased participation also reflects a growing emphasis among states on preparing students for college. Nine states require high school students to take the ACT. Two states require the SAT; a third will require it starting next year.
Moreover, by the 2014-15 academic year, 46 states will have put into place some or all of a set of common core state standards developed by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices.
"The expectation will no longer be just to graduate students but to really be preparing students for college," says Chris Minnich, senior membership director of the council. "We don't think every student is going to be going to college, but we do think students should have the opportunity, have the option."
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