Despite US Fixation on Testing, ACT Results Slip; ACT Board Doing Just Fine
On October 17, 2018, ACT released a report, “Condition of College and Career Readiness 2018.”
Beginning with the passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in January 2002, standardized testing has increasingly been the central focus of public education, with nationally-normed tests such as the ACT becoming the raison d’etre for secondary schools.
ACT acknowledges as much:
Over the past decade, ACT has experienced unprecedented growth in the number of students tested as well as growth in partnerships with states, districts, and high schools.
The test scores are supposed to be forever rising. However, that is not how it works; despite the ever-narrowing of public education to both covert and overt test prep, testing, and retesting, those scores will plateau, and all of that test-centrism will yield diminishing returns.
Consider this summary info ACT’s 2018 report:
Performance of 2018 Graduates
- Slightly fewer ACT-tested graduates were ready for college coursework this year than last year. The percentage of students meeting at least three of the ACT College Readiness Benchmarks in the four core subject areas was 38% for the 2018 US high school graduating class, down from 39% last year but the same as in 2016.
- A higher percentage of students this year than in recent years fell to the bottom of the preparedness scale, showing little or no readiness for Continue reading:
Despite US Fixation on Testing, ACT Results Slip; ACT Board Doing Just Fine | deutsch29
