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Saturday, May 25, 2013
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ACT: WB 28% ready for college
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · July 27, 2012
Less than one-third of students who took the ACT this past year met all four college readiness benchmarks, though more students than ever signed up to take them.
Some 28 percent of West Branch High School sophomores, juniors and seniors who tested are ready for college English, math, reading and science, according to a report presented last week to the West Branch Board of Education and updated figures sent out earlier this week.
ACT statistics show that 25 percent of graduates who take the test are prepared in all four areas. While 20 WBHS seniors took the test this past year, 35 members of the Class of 2012, or 58 percent, took the test at some point, Guidance Counselor Amanda Hughes said.
Of the 20 seniors who took the test in 2011-12, five met or exceeded all four college benchmarks, five met or exceeded three of the benchmarks, four met or exceeded two of the benchmarks, and six others did not meet any of the benchmarks.
Also, 10 of the seniors met the benchmark (a score of 18) for English, six for math (22), 13 for reading (21), and 14 for science.
Of all of the test-takers, 46 met or exceeded the English benchmark, 32 met or exceeded in math, 39 in reading and 49 in science.
Looking at the tests from 2011, West Branch students scored 13 to 24 percent better than students in the rest of the nation. Here are other statistics for meeting benchmarks, looking at 2011 figures, the most recent national data available:
Benchmarks WBHS U.S. +/-
English 79% 66% 13%+
Math 69% 45% 24%+
Reading 72% 52% 20%+
Science 46% 30% 16%+
Composite 38% 25% 13%+
Still, the percentage of students in 2012 meeting all four areas — 28 — dropped from 38 percent in 2011.
Hughes said that there were more students taking the ACT in 2012 than the past five years. From 2007 to 2011, from 30 to 42 students took the test. In 2012, that jumped to 60 students — four sophomores, 36 juniors and 20 seniors. Of those, 13 took the test at least twice.
“Perhaps the increased number of tested students accounts for a drop in average scores,” she wrote in her report.
Hughes said she believes students may do better if they could take the test in familiar surroundings, and announced that West Branch had been approved as a new ACT testing site.
ACT testing would take place in September, October, April and June; Hughes said she will send postcards to juniors and seniors, encouraging them to take tests here.
Hughes said the high school has two rooms big enough to put the required three feet of space around test-takers.
In 2011, the most recent year test-taking data has been compiled, 61 percent of Iowa graduates had taken the ACT, and 49 percent of graduates had taken it across the United States, according to online data by ACT.
The highest score on any of the ACT tests is 36. In 2011, the national average composite score was 21.1, and Iowa’s average was 22.3.
Students who took the ACT in 2012 scored poorer on average than those who took the test in 2011.
The percentage of test-takers who met college readiness benchmarks in each test, in 2011 and 2012.
• English — 2011, 79 percent; 2012, 75.7 percent
• Math — 2011, 69 percent; 2012, 55.7 percent
• Reading — 2011, 72 percent; 2012, 57.1 percent
• Science — 2011, 46 percent; 2012, 41.4 percent
“The main difference between the SAT and the ACT is that the latter test measures the student’s knowledge learned in high school, whereas the SAT tries to determine “innate” abilities,” according to CollegeStats.org. “But, the difficulty in the ACT comes from its questions that require more specific knowledge of any given subject. The ACT requires knowledge, the SAT requires test-taking skills.”
Here's how West Branch High School's ACT 2011 test results compare to the rest of the state and nation. The 2012 test results are given for West Branch, though state and national results for 2012 are not yet available.
Test WBHS range WBHS Iowa U.S. WBHS
2007-2012 2011 2011 2011 2012
English 20.5-22.9 22.7 21.7 20.6 20.5
Math 21.9-23.4 23.4 21.9 21.1 22.2
Reading 22.2-24.4 23.1 22.6 21.3 22.2
Science 22.5-24.0 23.7 22.4 20.9 22.5
Overall 22.1-23.5 23.3 22.3 21.1 22.1
Sources: West Branch High School, ACT Inc. |
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