“The best way for students to have higher scores on the ACT is to have exposure to rich rigorous and aligned coursework throughout their educational journey”. The district is also using the ACT test to help guide student intervention, Wright said. In the 2015 graduating class, only 62 percent of SC students took the ACT. The benchmark is created to measure a strong readiness for college.
Advertisement
In Iowa, 68 percent of graduates took the ACT.
It’s the district’s highest composite score since 2013 when the ACT, for the first time ever counted results from students who must take the ACT to meet state law, but are allowed extra time to take the exam. ACT added these “extended time” scores to more accurately reflect overall student achievement. The Beaufort County School District outperformed the state by 0.2 points with an average composite score of 18.7, down from 20.7 in 2015.
“Almost 2 out 3 students are taking the ACT and what’s happened is the testing cohort has become increasingly representative of students at large”, said Weeks, senior vice president for client relations, in an interview.
By comparison, 1.7 million graduating seniors in 2015 took the SAT, the other major college entrance exam.
According to the Kentucky Department of Education, ACT results from the graduating class of 2016 shows 57% of students meeting Kentucky’s college-and career-ready benchmark in English and 50% in Reading. And in science, 36 percent hit the 22-point score that predicts success in an entry-level biology course. Still, that resulted in an additional 1,369 students meeting all four benchmarks and being identified as college ready over 2015’s numbers.
Both states were topped by MA, which scored the highest.
Advertisement
A report released Wednesday showed the average composite score of Nevada students in the Class of 2016 was 17.7 out of 36. Forty-nine percent of white test-takers met the three-or-more benchmark, compared to 11 percent of African Americans and 23 percent of Hispanic test-takers. That compares with 40 percent a year ago.
