The American College Testing (ACT) program has developed benchmarks to measure what it takes to be successful in standard first-year college courses in the areas of English, math, reading and science.

A benchmark score is the minimum score needed on an ACT subject-area test to indicate a 50 percent chance of obtaining a B grade or higher or about a 75 percent chance of obtaining a C grade or higher in the corresponding credit-bearing college courses. The courses include English composition, algebra, social science and biology.

According to these benchmarks, 70 percent of ACT-tested 2006 North Dakota high school graduates were ready for college English, 47 percent for math, 55 percent for reading and 30 percent for science. The proportion of North Dakota students who met all four benchmarks was 23 percent, which is fewer than one in four. This proportion has remained relatively unchanged during the past several years.

""The key to improving college readiness is encouraging students to take more courses,"" says Richard Rathge, director of the North Dakota State Data Center at North Dakota State University.

North Dakota students who added an additional year of math, such as trigonometry or calculus, to their core requirement of algebra I, algebra II and geometry increased their likelihood of college-readiness from 26 percent to 69 percent. Similarly, in the sciences, North Dakota students who added physics to their general core of general, physical, earth science, biology and chemistry increased their likelihood of college-readiness from 27 percent to 48 percent.

This month's ""Population Bulletin,"" a monthly publication from the State Data Center, focuses on ACT program scores released by ACT Inc. The scores are designed to predict a student’s potential for success in college.

According to ACT Inc., 82 percent of the 2006 North Dakota graduating seniors took the ACT assessment during their sophomore, junior or senior year. This proportion is up from 75 percent in 1994. If a student was tested more than once, the most recent test record was used. Of the 2006 North Dakota high school graduates who were ACT-tested, the average composite ACT score was 21.4 out of a possible 36. Nationally, the composite score for ACT-tested 2006 graduates was slightly lower, 21.1.

Analysis of North Dakota ACT scores reveals a disparity in college readiness by gender, race and county. Of the ACT-tested 2006 North Dakota male high school graduates, 26 percent met all four subject-area benchmarks, compared with 20 percent of female students. An even greater disparity exists among racial groups. Approximately a third (36 percent) of Asian students met all four benchmarks, compared with 24 percent of white students, 16 percent of Hispanic students, 12 percent of black students and 5 percent of American Indian students. In terms of geography, 10 counties had at least one in four ACT-tested graduates meeting all four benchmarks. Nine counties had fewer than one in 10.

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