Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Lowest act scores in years whodathunk

PHOENIX (AP) — Scores on the ACT college admissions test by this year’s high school graduates hit their lowest point in more than 30 years — the latest evidence of the enormity of learning disruption during the pandemic.

The class of 2022′s average ACT composite score was 19.8 out of 36, marking the first time since 1991 that the average score was below 20. What’s more, an increasing number of high school students failed to meet any of the subject-area benchmarks set by the ACT — showing a decline in preparedness for college-level coursework.

The test scores, made public in a report Wednesday, show 42% of ACT-tested graduates in the class of 2022 met none of the subject benchmarks in English, reading, science and math, which are indicators of how well students are expected to perform in corresponding college courses.

In comparison, 38% of test takers in 2021 failed to meet any of the benchmarks.

“Academic preparedness is where we are seeing the decline,” said Rose Babington, senior director for state partnerships for the ACT. “Every time we see ACT test scores, we are talking about skills and standards, and the prediction of students to be successful and to know the really important information to succeed and persist through their first year of college courses.”

ACT scores have declined steadily in recent years. Still, “the magnitude of the declines this year is particularly alarming,” ACT CEO Janet Godwin said in a statement. “We see rapidly growing numbers of seniors leaving high school without meeting college-readiness benchmarks in any of the subjects we measure.”

The results offer a lens into systemic inequities in education, in place well before the pandemic shuttered schools and colleges temporarily waived testing requirements. For example, students without access to rigorous high school curriculum suffered more setbacks during pandemic disruptions, Babington said. Those students are from rural areas, come from low-income families and are often students of color.

The number of students taking the ACT has declined 30% since 2018, as graduates increasingly forgo college and some universities no longer require admissions tests. But participation plunged 37% among Black students, with 154,000 taking the test this year.

Standardized tests such as the ACT have faced growing concerns that they’re unfair to minority and low-income students, as students with access to expensive test prep or advanced courses often perform better.

Babington defended the test as a measure of college readiness. “Now more than ever, the last few years have shown us the importance of having high-quality data to help inform how we support students,” Babington said.

Test scores now are optional for first-year student admission at many institutions. Some colleges, such as the University of California system, even opt for a test-blind policy, where scores are not considered even if submitted.

But many students still take the tests, hoping to get an edge in admissions by submitting their scores. Tyrone Jordan, a freshman at test-optional Arizona State University, said he took the ACT and the SAT to get ahead of other students and help him receive scholarships.

Jordan, who wants to pursue mechanical engineering, said he thinks his rigorous schedule at Tempe Preparatory Academy prepared him for college, and the standardized tests helped support him and his family financially.

“All the test did for me was give me extra financial money,” Jordan said.

While Jordan was always planning to take the test, many students struggle with access or choose not to take the test since their universities of choice no longer require it. In Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Tennessee and Wyoming, everyone is tested.






https://apnews.com/article/health-education-covid-phoenix-f1735b733e3f707d1e37f04b102c5754

It's not just the pandemic, it's the schools, too.

I think the problem is the tests.

If they asked about intersectionality, gender theory, and pronouns the kids might score better!

These lunatics who directed all of these shutdowns, mask and vaccine mandates, cow-towing to the teacher unions and were wrong about everything need to be hung.

That's what has happened at my house, as my daughter has always been a natural test-taker. If average scores are falling, a good score will stand out even more. With that being said, I'm pretty damn sure the distance-learning didn't do any kids any favors over the last couple of years.

We have learned over the past few years with kids just graduating and about to graduate that our hs curriculum here isn’t real strong.

Couple that with the remote learning crap and lazy teachers, and the results on act have really been disappointing. Talking to my kids, there are almost no kids getting 30s or anywhere near a 30 on any part of the act.

DIVERSHITTY FTW!

The teachers aren’t just lazy, they are incompetent and frankly stupid.

Diversity is the downfall of mankind.

Well didn't I also have to lower the requirements? You know for those short bus kids and well-tanned little bastards

There are occasional exceptions, but the College of Education is a repository for the weakest students on the university campus.

If you have have 3 straight white males, 4 minor attracted black lesbians, 2 skanky mudsharks, and 6 fat purple-hared uglies, how much SNAP benefits should the tax payers provide Tyrone's three babby mommas?

Flatten the Curve.

Gruff...right on. Vast majority of teachers are teachers because they went to college, did not excel in science or engineering or anything that mattered, just took random courses, had few if any job prospects, but got enough credits to get a teaching credential. Teaching was the fallback option when all else failed. Our first clue is 76% of K-12 teachers are female...with predictable result. My apologies to those rare ENFJ Myers-Briggs types who make superb teachers. The rest of you slacker union bastards can kiss my ass. Otherwise, I have no strong feelings on the subject.

Would you guys be supportive of requiring a Masters to become a teacher?

Level of education has NOTHING to do with excellence...some could make the case that the higher the degree the more removed from teaching in the trenches effectively.

Hard to say.


Some places in Scandinavia have such requirements. The kids spend less time in class...and have higher scores than us.

I hear you Jim, Hard to say. In Scandinavia, they got good raw material in the way of students.
A quick anecdote, a friend bought an ancient 2 room school building a few years back, we were going to jack it up and move it...got sidetracked, it was full of old file boxes, we got to looking through them. I'm no scholar, but we were absolutely stunned at some of the examples of the daily lesson plans in those files (pre WW2). Arithmetic, algebra, geometry on a level 1st thru 8th I think that would stump a recent high school grad. But, class size may have had something to do with it, 6 or 8 kids per grade. We were telling a lady that went to that school as a child, and she said that the older kids constantly tutored the younger kids...that is a lot of one on one time.

Home schoolers dragging things down.

^^^^ x 100