The administration of Edwardsville District 7 Schools has recently been notified that the Edwardsville High School Class of 2016 earned the highest composite score – 23.2 – achieved by EHS seniors in the last 10 years.
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According to The Condition of College & Career Readiness 2016, ACT’s annual score report, which was released today, this was directly correlated to the substantial increase in the number of students taking the test.
The district has been working for several years to improve both ACT results and Advanced Placement test results, Ehrhardt said in a news release.
MA had the highest average score for any state this year: 24.8. Only one of the 13 highest-scoring states – Washington – is not in the Northeast.
The lowest average score was 17.7 in Nevada, where the participation rate was described as 100 percent.
The state’s minority students also lag significantly behind white students in their performance on the ACT.
The most substantial increase took place at East Hall High School where the composite score went up 1.9 points from 18.1 to 20. The switch to the SAT can help identify students who have the potential to take Advanced Placement courses, since the district will also be giving the PSAT exam to younger students as part of the package. This is up from the 3,988 students who took the test past year, which amounted to about 55 percent of graduating students, and the 3,663 students who took the ACT in 2014.
Congratulations, 2016 graduates, you were the top in your class.
“The success of the graduating class of 2016 who took the ACT test spans all student groups and underscores the district’s commitment to better prepare all students for post-secondary success”, said Minor.
The state-by-state results show a nation starkly divided in educational achievement. In 2015, 40 percent reached that threshold.
“While we know we have a ways to go to meet our vision that every SC graduate is prepared for college or career upon graduation, the ACT scores released today set a benchmark that we can build upon as we develop and implement an accountability system that incorporates multiple measures of college and career readiness”, Spearman said. ACT’s benchmarks represent how well a student is likely to do in college, with a minimum score indicating a 50 percent chance of getting a B or higher in a credit-bearing college course, according to the KDE.
Of Mississippi students who took the test, 11.3 percent met ACT’s college-ready benchmark in English, math, reading and science. Still, that resulted in an additional 1,369 students meeting all four benchmarks and being identified as college ready over 2015’s numbers. Thirty-four percent of students did not hit a single benchmark score.
Gov. Scott Walker had long touted the high scores.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Sydnee Dickson congratulated students and teachers for maintaining their ACT scores, even as grades went down nationally.
The number of students tested has grown significantly since 2012.
OH students did better on the benchmarks, but West Virginia and Kentucky were lower.
The state’s Department of Education’s goal is to raise the average ACT composite score to 21 by 2020. Closing the achievement gap has become a prime concern of many state education experts. Forty-three percent of Kansas students met the science benchmark, which is above the national average of 36 percent. More than 60 percent of those who say they will major in chemical engineering show proficiency in all four subject areas.
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In contrast, 34 percent of 2016 grads did not meet any of the four benchmarks.
