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North Dakota ACT Scores Rise, But Few Students Ready for College

An analysis of North Dakota ACT scores reveals a disparity in college readiness by gender, race and county.

Of the North Dakota high school graduates who took the American College Testing (ACT) examination, the average composite ACT score in 2007 was 21.6 out of a possible 36. This score is up from 21.2 in 2004.

Nationally, the composite score for ACT-tested 2007 graduates was 21.2, up from 20.9 in 2004.

This month’s “Population Bulletin,” a monthly publication from the North Dakota State Data Center at North Dakota State University, focuses on ACT program scores, which are designed to predict a student’s potential for success in college.

According to ACT, 82 percent of 2007 North Dakota graduating seniors took the ACT assessment during their sophomore, junior or senior year. This proportion is up from 78 percent in 1997. If a student was tested more than once, only the most recent test record was used.

The 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 grade of B or higher or about a 75 percent chance of obtaining a C or higher in the corresponding credit-bearing college courses that include English composition, algebra, social science and biology.

According to these benchmarks, 73 percent of ACT-tested 2007 North Dakota high school graduates were ready for college English, 48 percent for math, 56 percent for college reading and 30 percent for college science.

The proportion of North Dakota students who met all four benchmarks was 23 percent, which is less than one in four. This is a proportion that has remained relatively unchanged during the past several years.

“We live in an increasingly competitive global environment and these scores should remind us how challenging our task is to successfully prepare our students for future careers,” says Richard Rathge, State Data Center director. “Most of our high school graduates go on to college and we need to improve our ability to get them prepared for that experience.”

North Dakota students who added an additional year of math, such as trigonometry or calculus, to their core requirements of algebra I, algebra II and geometry increased their likelihood of college readiness from 27 percent to 69 percent.

In the sciences, North Dakota students who added physics to their general core of general, physical and earth sciences, plus biology and chemistry, increased their likelihood of college readiness from 27 percent to 47 percent.

Analysis of North Dakota ACT scores reveals a disparity in college readiness by gender, race and county. Of the ACT-tested 2007 North Dakota male high school graduates, 25 percent met all four subject-area benchmarks, compared with 22 percent of the female students.

An even greater disparity exists among racial groups. Nearly one-fourth of white students met all four benchmarks (24 percent), compared with 19 percent for Asians, 17 percent for Hispanics, 3 percent for American Indians and 3 percent for black students.

In terms of geography, 10 counties had at least one in four ACT-tested graduates meeting all four benchmarks, while seven counties had less than one in 10.


NDSU Agriculture Communication

Source:Richard Rathge, (701) 231-8621, richard.rathge@ndsu.edu
Editor:Rich Mattern, (701) 231-6136, richard.mattern@ndsu.edu

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