Members of Arkansas' high school Class of 2014 took the ACT college entrance exam in larger numbers and earned a higher average composite score than did last year's class.
But the state average remained below the national average and only 21 percent of state test-takers and 26 percent of test-takers nationally met ACT's college-readiness benchmarks in all four tested subjects: English, reading, math and science.
The Arkansas Class of 2014 earned a composite score of 20.4, an increase of 0.2 point compared with last year's average of 20.2 on the exam that is scored from 1 to 36. The national average composite score increased from 20.9 to 21, according to data from ACT, a nonprofit student testing organization based in Iowa City, Iowa.
A total of 26,821 Arkansas students took the exam, an increase of 946 students over the number of test-takers the previous year. In all, 93 percent of the 2014 graduating class in the Natural State took the test at least once. That was up from about 90 percent in the Class of 2013 and 88 percent the year before that.
Arkansas is one of 14 states in which at least 90 percent or more of the students took the ACT exam in English, reading, math and science. While some states pay for all students to take the ACT, Arkansas does not -- although there are some grants available to help offset the exam costs. The SAT college entrance exam is the more popular test in some states. Arkansas' SAT-test takers are typically those who seek admission to universities out-of-state, including some of the nation's more elite colleges and universities.
Debbie Jones, the Arkansas Department of Education's assistant commissioner for learning services, called the increases in the Arkansas 2014 results "significant" and "amazing," particularly in conjunction with an increase of test-takers. More often, an increase in test-takers results in flattening or lowering average scores.
Jones said there are multiple reasons for the achievement gains, including the use of new standards in math and English-language arts/literacy that were adopted by more than 40 states including Arkansas in 2010. Those standards were fully used for the first time in the ninth through 12th grades this past school year.
"You see greater attention on national standards," Jones said. "And the more that our students have exposure, as they did last year, to a set of national standards, the better prepared they are to perform on national assessments like the ACT."
Another factor in the student gains, Jones said, is the annually increasing number of Arkansas students who take Advanced Placement courses that give the students an opportunity to earn college credit for high school work.
Teachers also are getting training for teaching those more challenging Advanced Placement courses, which positively affects student performance, Jones said. Additionally, the state's Smart Core high school course requirements, which call for students to take four years of higher level math courses, also is having an effect. Students who take calculus, in particular, earned an ACT math score of 22.5.
The competition for college scholarships is driving up student achievement, Jones said. Students take the ACT test multiple times and take steps such as hiring tutors or participating in other types of ACT preparation programs to raise their college-entrance exam scores and qualify them for larger scholarships, Jones said.
Arkansas students who score below 19 on the ACT English and math sections must take noncredit remedial courses in those subjects upon enrolling in Arkansas colleges and universities. Students who earn ACT scores in the mid- to upper 30s on the 1-to-36 scale can be offered tens of thousands of dollars in scholarships.
Shane Broadway, director of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, also welcomed the higher average ACT score for Arkansas students, calling it a precursor to a greater success rate in college and careers.
"A score of 19 on the ACT in the areas of math and English is one of several indicators of college readiness," said Broadway, "and we're happy to see that more Arkansas students are making that cutoff score.
"We know that students who are able to skip remedial courses and jump right into college-level course work are more likely to graduate, which is better for them as individuals and our workforce as a whole," he said.
Arkansas students in the Class of 2014 earned a score of 20.1 in English, up from 19.9 in 2013 and equal to the 20.1 score in 2010. The class also improved over last year's results in reading with a score of 20.8 as compared with 20.5 in 2013 and in science with a score of 20.3 as compared with 20.1 the previous year. This year's average math score of 19.9 was identical to the 19.9 average last year and in 2010.
Black students made up 17 percent of the state's test-takers this year, and earned an average composite score of 16.9, an increase of 0.2 point over the 2013 result.
Hispanic students made up 8 percent of the group of tested students this year. The average composite score for that group of students declined by 0.1 point to 18.8 points this year.
White students in the class earned a composite score of 21.6, which was an increase of 0.2 over the 2013 average for that student group.
ACT also reports the results in terms of college-readiness benchmarks. Students who met the benchmark score in a subject -- 18 in English, 22 in math, 22 in reading and 23 in science -- have a 50 percent chance of earning a B and a 75 percent change of earning a C in the corresponding college courses.
Sixty-three percent of Arkansas test-takers met or exceeded the English benchmark score, as did 35 percent of test-takers in math, 41 percent of test-takers in reading and 32 percent in science. Only 21 percent of Arkansas test-takers met or exceeded the benchmark scores in all subjects in the Class of 2014. That was up from from 20 percent in 2013.
Nationally, about 1.8 million students -- 57 percent of recent graduates -- took the ACT exam.
Metro on 08/20/2014