Georgia registers small increase on 2012 ACT scores
State and national ACT scores were released today. At the national level, scores on the college admission exam were flat, while Georgia, where more teens are taking the ACT, saw a slight increase. (SAT scores will follow in a few weeks.)
A record 52 percent of the the 2012 U.S. high school graduating class took the ACT. More than a fourth (28 percent) did not meet any of the four ACT College Readiness Benchmarks in the testing areas of English, mathematics, reading and science; 15 percent met only one of the benchmarks, while 17 percent met two. Only 25 percent of tested 2012 grads met all four ACT benchmarks, unchanged from last year.
“Far too many high school graduates are still falling short academically,” said ACT Chief Executive Officer Jon Whitmore in a statement. “We need to do more to ensure that our young people improve. The advanced global economy requires American students to perform at their highest level to compete in the future job market and maintain the long-term economic security of the U.S.”
The flat ACT performance and the slight increase in the test score gap between racial groups over the last five years prompted a rebuke from FairTest, which said the lackluster scores were evidence that test-based strategies to boost academic performance and narrow achievement gaps represented “a sweeping, expensive failure.”
“Rational policy-makers would look at the evidence and change course,” said FairTest public education director Bob Schaeffer in a statement. “Yet, instead of abandoning what is clearly the wrong track for improving U.S. schools, policy-makers are actually putting more weight on standardized tests.”
Schaeffer cites U.S. Department of Education waivers of “No Child Left Behind” that now require states to use tests for more high-stakes purposes, including evaluating teachers. “Why are policy-makers doubling down on a failed strategy? How much more data do they need to understand this approach is not working?” he said.
In talking about the scores with the AJC education editor, we discussed the perception that some high school students fare better on the ACT than the SAT. She may have a reporter examine that issue later this year. My own research has shown that the scores generally align; a student who scores well on the ACT will have commensurate scores on the SAT. Increasingly, Georgia parents have their kids take both tests.
You can read the Georgia report here.
You can read the national report here.
From DOE:
Georgia high school students saw a small increase this year on their ACT results as the national average showed no change, according to the 2012 ACT report. One-year increases were seen in the composite scores (+0.1), reading (+0.2) and science (+0.2). English results were flat and math results decreased slightly (-0.1). Overall results in Georgia increased this year even as the number of students tested increased from 47% in 2011 to 52% in 2012.
“I am pleased to see our students’ scores headed in the right direction and the gap closing between Georgia and the national average,” said State School Superintendent Dr. John Barge. “I think it is significant that our participation rate on the ACT increased considerably and we still have growth in overall scores.”
ACT Composite Scores
Fifty-two (52) percent of Georgia’s 2012 graduating seniors (47,169 students) took the ACT and had an average composite score of 20.7. This average is up .1 percentage point from last year’s 20.6 and .4 percentage point less than the national average of 21.1.
Georgia students are also outperforming the national average when scores are broken down by race. The 2012 ACT report shows that African-American students had an average composite score of 17.6, considerably higher than the national average of 17.0. Hispanic students had an average composite score of 19.9, a full point higher than the national average of 18.9. White students had an average composite score of 22.8, .4 percentage point higher than the national average of 22.4.
“It’s clear from this report that we outperform the national average when our results are broken out by subgroup,” said Superintendent Barge. “However, we still have gaps between subgroups that we must address. If we’ re going to close the gap with the nation then we must close the achievement gap between our subgroups.”
College Readiness
The report reveals that more of Georgia’s students (10,377 in 2012 compared to 9,015 in 2011) demonstrated college and career readiness this year in all four areas (English, reading, mathematics, and science) of the test.
“I’m very pleased that more of our students are demonstrating college and career readiness,” said Superintendent Barge. “As we implement the Career Pathways initiative, I believe students will begin seeing more relevance in courses they are taking, which will translate into an even higher percentage of our students scoring at college and career ready levels.”
The ACT College Readiness Benchmarks are based on the actual grades earned by students in college, define college and career readiness, and report student performance results relative to that goal.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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58 comments Add your comment
Lee
August 23rd, 2012
8:38 am
There’s this:
“It’s clear from this report that we outperform the national average when our results are broken out by subgroup,” said Superintendent Barge. “However, we still have gaps between subgroups that we must address. If we’re going to close the gap with the nation then we must close the achievement gap between our subgroups.”
And then there is this:
“The flat ACT performance and the slight increase in the test score gap between racial groups over the last five years prompted a rebuke from FairTest, which said the lackluster scores were evidence that test-based strategies to boost academic performance and narrow achievement gaps represented “a sweeping, expensive failure.”
Ever since Brown vs Board, the politically correct have been trying to eliminate the “achievement gap” between the races, but yet, refuse to discuss the key contributing element of that gap – the racial differences in IQ.
Even folks on here try to correlate income and achievement and try to say that if we eliminate poverty, we will eliminate the achievement gap. Sorry, but 50 years of welfare and “The War on Poverty” hasn’t changed anything – well, other than increasing the number of people on public assistance (aka, the Democratic base).
Folks, a Shetland Pony will never win the Kentucky Derby. You can train and train and train, but in the end, he is still a Shetland Pony.
Likewise, someone with an IQ of 80 will never be a Mensa member. Instead of trying to educate them to be able to graduate college, they need to receive training in order to be a productive member of society.
Digger
August 23rd, 2012
9:07 am
Then we need to give the Shetland Pony a head start almost to the finish line and call him Secretariat.
Mountain Man
August 23rd, 2012
10:22 am
Lee – give it up. IQ tests will NEVER measure intelligence. Let’s see you hot-wire a car – if you can’t you “FAIL”.
RCB
August 23rd, 2012
10:31 am
Being poor is no excuse for not being an active participant in the education of your children. Stop using that as an excuse. Public education is free and there is no excuse for not taking full advantage of it. It still comes down to the PARENTS, and I use that term loosely.
Really amazed
August 23rd, 2012
11:57 am
@RCB, right on!!!!!!
Cere
August 23rd, 2012
2:47 pm
“Instead of trying to educate them to be able to graduate college, they need to receive training in order to be a productive member of society.”
That’s pretty much what I’m saying. We don’t need to aim for college for everyone. BUT we can’t blame some students struggles on bad parenting and wash our hands. That would come back to bite in the form of crime, jails, welfare, etc. We should at least train our citizens to be productive at something so that they can have happy enough lives, regardless of how simple. It’s for the good of us all if you would rather look at it that way.
As it is now, we seem to prepare people for either Harvard or Hamburger U. We can do better.
Ole Guy
August 23rd, 2012
4:49 pm
…Kiddinme, test-taking is a skill in-and-of itself. Subject matter knowledge is, of course, of some importance in being a successful test taker.
I know this is going to ilicit yet more moans an’groans of “this is a different generation which requires “special handling”. The more we try to identify alternate means of accomodating these kids, the more we enable their expectations that1) the world must recognize THEIR “special situations” and 2) the world will be more than happy to alter rotation upon the axis so that these special situations might be tended to.
I don’t know what your lot in life is, sir/mam, but any reasonably successful person will testify to the fact that one must not only meet the world half way but charge ahead at full throttle. This means, among many other things,…”If I gotta take THAT particular test, than gd-it, that’s the test I’m gonna take…and in the process, I’m gonna crush it”! This pussy footin’ around…”oh sonny, in order that the world might accomodate your “weakness”, what alternative test would you like to take”?…is both generationaly destructive and, in the end, serves no real purpose whatsoever. Then again, what with the propensity to celebrate “achievements” of mediocrity, what else is one to expect? Rather than sending the message to youth that “It is YOU who better start understanding the world…”, we can continue with the mantra of “Oh gee, I better do better in understanding youth”. This “understanding will be expected into their 20s, 30s, etc. Just exactly WHEN are we supposed to start developing these kids into future self-sustaining beings?
N. GA Teacher
August 23rd, 2012
11:18 pm
The ACT may not be a great predictor of college success (I think good work ethic and organizational skills are greater predictors) but DOES inform us of the level of student intellectual sophistication to be ABLE to succeed in college, particularly top-level universities. Success on the ACT is highly dependent on students’ reading, vocabulary, critical thinking skills, and “worldliness” which begins with mommytalk and continues as dinner table conversation. A huge advantage imparted by interacting with college-educated professional parents is amplified by constant reinforcement of the importance of education, particularly READING. I have had several English teachers tell me that the reading level of kids in the 4th grade is a great predictor of who will wind up in honors class in high school. Thus is explained much of the “achievement gap” (actually not achievement but intellectual and experiential exposure). Schools need to stop focusing on “closing the gap” because it cannot be done unless family differences are eliminated; rather, schools should focus on increasing the types of experiences children can be given: take them on more field trips, have more speakers at schools, allow them more “exchange days” with kids at other schools, do much more hands-on instruction. More desk study, work sheets, and hard-handed “standardized test review weeks” proved relatively ineffective during the NCLB era.