ACT test scores drop to their lowest in 30 years

[cintinative]

There are a ton of articles on this. I just picked one. 

In one of the articles the ACT rep mentioned the scores were dropping pre-pandemic as well. Depending on which article you read, there is more emphasis on the pandemic influencing the slide.  

I know some of this has come up in some recent threads, but I thought maybe it would be interesting to discuss? One article quoted the ACT report as saying that kids need access to more rigorous curriculum.  I don't have a kid in a B&M school, but my impression is that AP courses are much more widely utilized than when I was in high school 30 plus years ago, and yet the scores have dropped.  I know there are some schools that don't offer the accelerated courses because of financial issues, but is that really what is going on here? I am curious to hear your thoughts. 

"The test scores, made public in a report Wednesday, show 42% of ACT-tested graduates in the class of 2022 met none of the subject benchmarks in English, reading, science and math, which are indicators of how well students are expected to perform in corresponding college courses."

https://www.npr.org/2022/10/12/1128376442/act-test-scores-pandemic

Edited October 14, 2022 by cintinative

[EmilyGF]

I haven't looked at the data, but you can absolutely have a situation where the top kids are getting stronger AND the lowest kids are getting lower showing that the average drops.

Another alternative would be that everyone is getting better but that a higher percentage of lower kids are taking the test, bringing the scores down. That could happen if states started requiring the ACT for graduation or of stronger states, like MA or IL, dropped the test and weaker states, like Mississippi, adopted it.

I wonder what the de-emphasis on college tests has done to the testing pool? We may be comparing very different sets of kids.

Finally, at my kids' high school, the AP classes are really great, and my kids are taking more, and better taught, AP classes than I took. However, the non-AP classes seem often to have very low expectations, IMO.

[Acorn]

When I was in high school, only people who wanted to go to college took ACT. Currently for many public high schools in Ohio, the high school requires each student to take one. It will be paid for by the state/school and during a school day.

 

[Ailaena]

I would like to see if that is true of kids who are NOT required to take the ACT for graduation.

The states that do require it are states that are not necessarily known for being high in education in the first place.  Also, some of the “better” states have moved to requiring the SAT, meaning most kids do not even take the ACT, dropping the scores further.

idk, just a thought.  

[heartlikealion]

Haven't read articles yet... just throwing this out there. Maybe it's just too expensive for parents to pay for test prep courses now vs years ago. Not to say everyone that does well took one. 

I took the ACT, took a prep course, retook it, and did better in one section and worse in another making my overall score only go up one point. UGH. 

[Heartstrings]

1 hour ago, EmilyGF said:

her alternative would be that everyone is getting better but that a higher percentage of lower kids are taking the test, bringing the scores down. That could happen if states started requiring the ACT for graduation or of stronger states, like MA or IL, dropped the test and weaker states, like Mississippi, adopted it.

The high school I went to now administers the ACT once per year during the school day.  I’m not sure how mandatory it is, but you’re right that will sway the results.  Thinking of my high school friend group, I was the “brightest” academically and the only one to take the ACT or SAT.  1 of my friends might have done ok but 2 never got near the required math levels and didn’t have the reading/grammar/vocabulary to do well on it.  So instead of 1 decent score the school would have had 1 decent score and 3 terrible ones, really dragging that average down.  

[vonfirmath]

1 hour ago, EmilyGF said:

I haven't looked at the data, but you can absolutely have a situation where the top kids are getting stronger AND the lowest kids are getting lower showing that the average drops.

Another alternative would be that everyone is getting better but that a higher percentage of lower kids are taking the test, bringing the scores down. That could happen if states started requiring the ACT for graduation or of stronger states, like MA or IL, dropped the test and weaker states, like Mississippi, adopted it.

I wonder what the de-emphasis on college tests has done to the testing pool? We may be comparing very different sets of kids.

Finally, at my kids' high school, the AP classes are really great, and my kids are taking more, and better taught, AP classes than I took. However, the non-AP classes seem often to have very low expectations, IMO.

My son is taking more AP classes than I did for sure.

I think more are offered

[vonfirmath]

18 minutes ago, heartlikealion said:

Haven't read articles yet... just throwing this out there. Maybe it's just too expensive for parents to pay for test prep courses now vs years ago. Not to say everyone that does well took one. 

I took the ACT, took a prep course, retook it, and did better in one section and worse in another making my overall score only go up one point. UGH. 

When I was taking the SAT (I don't remember if ACT was even an option) -- very few people took prep courses. Only if you were trying to get into a tippy top college. You just took the test and went on with life.

 

[cintinative]

30 minutes ago, Acorn said:

When I was in high school, only people who wanted to go to college took ACT. Currently for many public high schools in Ohio, the high school requires each student to take one. It will be paid for by the state/school and during a school day.

 

So this is interesting. Just for Ohio, where as you have noted, students get one free ACT test a year, during a school day, there have been consistent drops over the past nine years.  So we have a state where we might argue "most" students are testing (82% by their statistics), and we have dropped scores consistently through all categories, for example, from  71% meeting the English proficiency score in 2013 to 48% in 2022.

 

Edited October 14, 2022 by cintinative

[heartlikealion]

1 minute ago, vonfirmath said:

When I was taking the SAT (I don't remember if ACT was even an option) -- very few people took prep courses. Only if you were trying to get into a tippy top college. You just took the test and went on with life.

Where my son attends school they did an Pre-ACT test every year since 7th grade?? I think it's NUTS. 

The course I took I think was held on campus and advertised to parents of the school. I just went to community college my first couple years and that was my plan all along. Neither ACT score of mine was very good. I am a notoriously slower test taker and probably left a lot of things blank or scribbled in bubbles as time ran out. I don't think my test scores are often a real reflection of my work since I'm sure I didn't even get to read every question. 

[hshibley]

The ACT is mandatory for all juniors in NC. I think this lowers the scores overall since scores are being compared to years ago when only college bound students took the tests. 

[Miss Tick]

2 minutes ago, hshibley said:

The ACT is mandatory for all juniors in NC. I think this lowers the scores overall since scores are being compared to years ago when only college bound students took the tests. 

Google says the ACT had been mandated for Juniors for the last 9 school years, so that probably includes most of the time they are looking at - although i haven't dug into the articles.

I assume SAT data would show a similar drop? I haven't seen it mentioned.

[Starr]

Friends kids in private schools in NYC had testing practice as part of their English curriculum. Many also had private tutors. Back in the dark ages we just took the test before college, no prep.

[teachermom2834]

Totally non-scientific observation from a region where it is required of all graduating students but education is not great.

High achievers are doing more and more and scoring higher and higher. Average scores at private schools seem to be going up.

Classes for everyone else seem to be the pits. 😟

I would guess the gap is widening more than anything. Again…just my unscientific observational .02 

[heartlikealion]

17 minutes ago, hshibley said:

The ACT is mandatory for all juniors in NC. I think this lowers the scores overall since scores are being compared to years ago when only college bound students took the tests. 

It's the real ACT, not a pre ACT? 

[vonfirmath]

1 hour ago, heartlikealion said:

Where my son attends school they did an Pre-ACT test every year since 7th grade?? I think it's NUTS. 

The course I took I think was held on campus and advertised to parents of the school. I just went to community college my first couple years and that was my plan all along. Neither ACT score of mine was very good. I am a notoriously slower test taker and probably left a lot of things blank or scribbled in bubbles as time ran out. I don't think my test scores are often a real reflection of my work since I'm sure I didn't even get to read every question. 

Some of the The 8th graders at my daughter's middle school took PSAT on Wednesday. My son also took it (a 10th grader) -- every 10th and 11th grader at his high school takes the PSAT. 9th graders who have completed ALgebra (I I think) also take it.

Edited October 14, 2022 by vonfirmath

[hshibley]

33 minutes ago, heartlikealion said:

It's the real ACT, not a pre ACT? 

Yes. You can then have the scores sent to college last for admissions 

[KSera]

1 hour ago, cintinative said:

So this is interesting. Just for Ohio, where as you have noted, students get one free ACT test a year, during a school day, there have been consistent drops over the past nine years.  So we have a state where we might argue "most" students are testing (82% by their statistics), and we have dropped scores consistently through all categories, for example, from  71% meeting the English proficiency score in 2013 to 48% in 2022.

 

Do you know what year Ohio started giving it to everyone? I noticed that there is significant drop from 2017 to 2018, and then it’s slow and gradual after that.

[Miss Tick]

5 minutes ago, KSera said:

Do you know what year Ohio started giving it to everyone? I noticed that there is significant drop from 2017 to 2018, and then it’s slow and gradual after that.

According to the Ohio board of education website, "State law requires that schools administer the state-funded ACT or SAT to all grade 11 students, who entered grade 9 after July 1, 2014, in the spring of the school year."

So I would have expected the dip to occur in 2016?

[KSera]

3 minutes ago, Miss Tick said:

According to the Ohio board of education website, "State law requires that schools administer the state-funded ACT or SAT to all grade 11 students, who entered grade 9 after July 1, 2014, in the spring of the school year."

So I would have expected the dip to occur in 2016?

That is very helpful. Though actually, thinking through the math in the years, students who entered ninth grade in 2014 would have been in spring of their junior year in 2017. They would’ve started the year in 2016. So maybe that has something to do with it after all?

[BusyMom5]

My first question was " What is considered an ACT benchmark score."  According to ACT, the following:

English 18

Mathematics 22

Reading 22

Science 23

Personally,  I think the science score is too high, but the other 3 feel very achievable by most students. 

My unpopular opinion- this is the result of Common Core, NCLB, no more tracking in elementary school, and inclusion.   More kids are capable,  but the resources are focused on the bottom right now, instead of working on the middle- who could actually be brought up to benchmark with a more solid foundation.   

 

[Dmmetler]

I think it would be interesting to look at the other test. In TN, the ACT is a graduation requirement in many districts. That means that a lot of kids take it who have no goals beyond the local CC or tech college (TN has an automatic scholarship for 2 year schools for high school graduates), know they don’t need a test score, and have no reason to try. 
 

The SAT, or even the PSAT. on the other hand, is only taken by college bound kids who have a need for it-which usually means those who have a prayer of NMS or who are applying to schools out of state.

[Miss Tick]

11 minutes ago, Dmmetler said:

I think it would be interesting to look at the other test. In TN, the ACT is a graduation requirement in many districts. That means that a lot of kids take it who have no goals beyond the local CC or tech college (TN has an automatic scholarship for 2 year schools for high school graduates), know they don’t need a test score, and have no reason to try. 
 

The SAT, or even the PSAT. on the other hand, is only taken by college bound kids who have a need for it-which usually means those who have a prayer of NMS or who are applying to schools out of state.

I agree, it would be interesting. Google says a handful of states require the SAT, so we could even compare score trends between states that require it and states that don't.

[Frances]

4 hours ago, heartlikealion said:

Haven't read articles yet... just throwing this out there. Maybe it's just too expensive for parents to pay for test prep courses now vs years ago. Not to say everyone that does well took one. 

I took the ACT, took a prep course, retook it, and did better in one section and worse in another making my overall score only go up one point. UGH. 

The idea of prepping in any way at all for the ACT didn’t exist at my high school. 

[Miss Tick]

(Ironically, I stepped away from this thread to help ydd prep for the PSAT8/9 that she is going to take in a week or two)

The tables in this Prepscholar blog about SAT scores over the last 10 years seem to show that the SAT has changed enough to make it very difficult to compare scores over a long stretch of time. Looking at the racial breakdown the white scores, which presumably represent the majority of test takers, seem to have increased. Still not an apples-to-apples comparison to the ACT days, though.

[bookbard]

So scores have been dropping in Australia (also pre-pandemic) as well. There's a lot of different theories about it, but I tend to go with the increased gap between the rich and the poor which has really widened in the last ten years. It's probably something that has increased in the US as well. What was noted in the Australian PISA scores is that there are fewer high scoring kids than before. So the higher ability scores are being flattened, rather than a massive increase in the lower scores. 

[Miss Tick]

9 minutes ago, bookbard said:

So scores have been dropping in Australia (also pre-pandemic) as well. There's a lot of different theories about it, but I tend to go with the increased gap between the rich and the poor which has really widened in the last ten years. It's probably something that has increased in the US as well. What was noted in the Australian PISA scores is that there are fewer high scoring kids than before. So the higher ability scores are being flattened, rather than a massive increase in the lower scores. 

Interesting! I think everyone has always had to take the PISA, is that correct?

In the US, as someone mentioned up thread, the knee jerk reaction would be that focusing attention on low performers has taken resources and/or time away from high performers, thus the flattening. Would that be your first guess in Australia also?

[bookbard]

15 minutes ago, Miss Tick said:

In the US, as someone mentioned up thread, the knee jerk reaction would be that focusing attention on low performers has taken resources and/or time away from high performers, thus the flattening. Would that be your first guess in Australia also?

No, not at all, and no one has suggested that, either. 

[Arcadia]

2 hours ago, Miss Tick said:

(Ironically, I stepped away from this thread to help ydd prep for the PSAT8/9 that she is going to take in a week or two)

The tables in this Prepscholar blog about SAT scores over the last 10 years seem to show that the SAT has changed enough to make it very difficult to compare scores over a long stretch of time. Looking at the racial breakdown the white scores, which presumably represent the majority of test takers, seem to have increased. Still not an apples-to-apples comparison to the ACT days, though.

The new SAT format started in 2016/17. I remember because DS17 took it the first time in the new format. Also, people would prep for a better score for SAT if aiming for National Merit Scholarship. 

12 minutes ago, Miss Tick said:

Interesting! I think everyone has always had to take the PISA, is that correct?

 

PISA is a sample population. No way to administer the PISA to everyone. 

[Arcadia]

This article did raise a few points to ponder

https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2022/10/13/act-and-sat-scores-fall

““This is the fifth consecutive year of declines in average scores, a worrisome trend that began long before the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic and has persisted,” said ACT CEO Janet Godwin.

The SAT also saw scores fall this year. The 2022 average score was 1050, compared to 1060 for the Class of 2021.

…

Of course, during pandemic, and since, most colleges that previously required one of the exams stopped doing so. And during 2021, many students who had signed up to take the tests were unable to do so because many testing centers canceled on them due to concerns about COVID-19.

Testing experts have cautioned against making too many comparisons of the scores from one year to the next during the pandemic, noting that it’s difficult to accurately determine who is not taking the exams, with so many students opting not to test.

…

The ACT breaks down scores by race and whether the student has completed the core courses in high school that ACT recommends for college preparation.

This year the average score for Asian students who did not complete the core courses was 23.7, and it was 26 for those who did complete them.

The scores of every other racial group who had completed the core were less than 23.7. For white students, it was 22.7, for Black students, it was 17.6, and for Hispanic students, it was 20.

Asian students also dominated on the SAT. The average score for Asian students was 1229, while the average scores for other groups trailed behind. The average for white students was 1098, for Black students it was 926 and for Latinos it was 964.

“At some level, these annual reports are increasingly meaningless because 80 percent of schools no longer require ACT/SAT scores, and about half of applicants don’t submit them,” said Robert Schaeffer, public education director of FairTest: the National Center for Fair and Open Testing.

…

Godwin of ACT emphasized the dangers of so many students taking the ACT without first taking the recommended college preparatory classes.

“The magnitude of the declines this year is particularly alarming, as we see rapidly growing numbers of seniors leaving high school without meeting the college-readiness benchmark in any of the subjects we measure,” she said. “These declines are not simply a by-product of the pandemic. They are further evidence of longtime systemic failures that were exacerbated by the pandemic. A return to the pre-pandemic status quo would be insufficient and a disservice to students and educators.””

[bookbard]

2 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

They are further evidence of longtime systemic failures that were exacerbated by the pandemic. A return to the pre-pandemic status quo would be insufficient and a disservice to students and educators.””

That is a great comment, which could refer to so much across education. 

[Miss Tick]

15 minutes ago, bookbard said:

No, not at all, and no one has suggested that, either. 

Do you have any theories on why the top scores are flattening? Perhaps more students are getting to the higher levels of achievement? That would be good news.

[fairfarmhand]

ITA with the theory that its because more students are required to take it.

However, in my area, all the area high school teachers that I know feel that teaching has become a joke. They cannot fail anyone for any reason. Grades are meaningless. They cannot require work from students. The kids know it. Some of the kids care, and the ones who have parents that are invested in their kids' future care. But everyone else just gets passed right along. 

[Miss Tick]

6 minutes ago, bookbard said:

That is a great comment, which could refer to so much across education. 

Isn't that the truth!

[KungFuPanda]

I took the test in 90.  Dh took it in 86.  By the time we went to college after the Army they somehow added points to our scores to make them equivalent to 94 scores.  Scores had gone up in that time but that didn’t mean the kids performed better,  The scoring had changed. 

Edited October 14, 2022 by KungFuPanda

[bookbard]

5 minutes ago, Miss Tick said:

Perhaps more students are getting to the higher levels of achievement? That would be good news.

No, it's the opposite. Fewer are reaching the higher levels, more people are just mediocre. So basically the brighter kids are not getting the support they need to achieve. There's not a lot of real support for gifted kids, unless you're wealthy and can afford a private school. You might be gifted, but if you're never taught certain things, you can't know them. Giftedness is potential. There is a massive difference between schools in poorer areas and schools in richer areas, and in Australia, they're funded equally, it's not local taxes like in the USA. I've mentioned elsewhere that most of the academically selective public schools are located in wealthy areas. There just isn't the support out there to really nurture gifted or bright kids. 

[heartlikealion]

2 minutes ago, bookbard said:

No, it's the opposite. Fewer are reaching the higher levels, more people are just mediocre. So basically the brighter kids are not getting the support they need to achieve. There's not a lot of real support for gifted kids, unless you're wealthy and can afford a private school. You might be gifted, but if you're never taught certain things, you can't know them. Giftedness is potential. There is a massive difference between schools in poorer areas and schools in richer areas, and in Australia, they're funded equally, it's not local taxes like in the USA. I've mentioned elsewhere that most of the academically selective public schools are located in wealthy areas. There just isn't the support out there to really nurture gifted or bright kids. 

Yeah I am not aware of gifted options where I live. My county is very poor. 

[Drama Llama]

I think test optional policies at top schools are probably part of this too. 

Before the pandemic, kids I knew would take the test over and over, trying to get a high enough score.  Most of the kids I know who did that are high achievers, so they might be contributing 4 or 5 scores over 30 to the pool.  Now, I see a lot of kids who try once, and then decide to go test optional.  

I don't think that's the whole picture, but I imagine it's part.

[Arcadia]

12 minutes ago, Miss Tick said:

Do you have any theories on why the top scores are flattening? Perhaps more students are getting to the higher levels of achievement? That would be good news.

It is the opposite https://www.oecd.org/pisa/publications/PISA2018_CN_AUS.pdf

 

4 minutes ago, bookbard said:

No, it's the opposite. 

Agreed.

[Arcadia]

@EmilyGF PISA USA https://www.oecd.org/pisa/publications/PISA2018_CN_USA.pdf

“
Mean performance in reading, mathematics and science in the United States remained about the same in every PISA assessment, with no significant improvement or decline. Only science performance in 2006 was significantly below the 2018 mean score, but even in science, performance has not changed significantly and has followed a flat trajectory since 2009.
• Nevertheless, in reading, the share of 15-year-old students scoring at Level 5 or 6 (top performers) increased by almost 4 percentage points between 2009 and 2018, to 13.5%. In science, some improvements were observed amongst the lowest-achieving students, and the gap between the lowest- and the highest-achieving students narrowed; the share of 15-year-old students scoring below Level 2 proficiency in science shrank by 5.7 percentage points between 2006 and 2018.”

[Terabith]

My youngest has dyslexia and a host of other learning disabilities.  And yet, in her AP US History class, that I anticipated was going to be incredibly challenging for her, she somehow not only has a high A despite doing no out of class homework, but she’s purportedly one of the sought after kids for group work because she knows what the big words in documents like the Declaration of Independence mean and can scan for relevant information.  I honestly didn’t expect that “can understand what the Declaration of Independence says and means” would make someone a top student in AP US History.  That standard feels ridiculously low.  

[bookbard]

So I found an interesting chart of Australian PISA scores - basically, private school scores were up there with China (15% of school population), Catholic school scores were about the same as Korea (16% of school population), and public school scores way down below the USA (around 65% of school population).

However, this article says that if you control for SES (socio economic status), public school scores were just as good. In other words, it's SES that is making the big difference, and that's why my conjecture is the gap between the rich and the poor (which has increased dramatically) is the big issue.

Edited October 14, 2022 by bookbard

[rebcoola]

29 minutes ago, Terabith said:

My youngest has dyslexia and a host of other learning disabilities.  And yet, in her AP US History class, that I anticipated was going to be incredibly challenging for her, she somehow not only has a high A despite doing no out of class homework, but she’s purportedly one of the sought after kids for group work because she knows what the big words in documents like the Declaration of Independence mean and can scan for relevant information.  I honestly didn’t expect that “can understand what the Declaration of Independence says and means” would make someone a top student in AP US History.  That standard feels ridiculously low.  

We are having a similar experience with my ODD.  She is 2E and struggles with English word retrieval,  auditory processing disorder.  I really though English and Social studies would be a struggle.  Instead she is brewing  through English and even college credit Sociology. 

[Terabith]

11 minutes ago, rebcoola said:

We are having a similar experience with my ODD.  She is 2E and struggles with English word retrieval,  auditory processing disorder.  I really though English and Social studies would be a struggle.  Instead she is brewing  through English and even college credit Sociology. 

Yeah, we elected not to do AP English, but apparently zero instruction takes place in non AP English.  It’s been enlightening.  

[Arcadia]

19 minutes ago, bookbard said:

However, this article says that if you control for SES (socio economic status), public school scores were just as good. In other words, it's SES that is making the big difference, and that's why my conjecture is the gap between the rich and the poor (which has increased dramatically) is the big issue.

That’s basically what the PISA report for Australia said as well

”Equity related to socio-economic status
• In Australia, socio-economically advantaged students outperformed disadvantaged students in reading by 89 score points in PISA 2018, compared to 89 score points on average across OECD countries. In PISA 2009, the performance gap related to socio-economic status was 90 score points in Australia (and 87 score points on average across OECD countries).
• Some 24% of advantaged students in Australia, but 6% of disadvantaged students, were top performers in reading in PISA 2018. On average across OECD countries, 17% of advantaged students, and 3% of disadvantaged students, were top performers in reading.
• Socio-economic status was a strong predictor of performance in mathematics and science in all PISA participating countries. It explained 11% of the variation in mathematics performance in PISA 2018 in Australia (compared to 14% on average across OECD countries), and 10% of the variation in science performance (compared to the OECD average of 13% of the variation).
• Some 13% of disadvantaged students in Australia were able to score in the top quarter of reading performance within Australia, indicating that disadvantage is not destiny. On average across OECD countries, 11% of disadvantaged students scored amongst the highest performers in reading in their countries.”

For US

”Equity related to socio-economic status
• In the United States, socio-economically advantaged students outperformed disadvantaged students in reading by 99 score points in PISA 2018 (OECD average: 89 score points). This is not significantly different from the average difference between the two groups (89 score points) across OECD countries. In PISA 2009, the performance gap related to socio-economic status was 107 score points in the United States (and 87 score points on average across OECD countries).
• Some 27% of advantaged students in the United States, but only 4% of disadvantaged students, were top performers in reading in PISA 2018. On average across OECD countries, 17% of advantaged students, and 3% of disadvantaged students were top performers in reading.
• Socio-economic status was a strong predictor of performance in mathematics and science in all PISA participating countries. It explained 16% of the variation in mathematics performance in PISA 2018 in the United States (compared to 14% on average across OECD countries), and 12% of the variation in science performance (compared to the OECD average of 13% of the variation).
• Some 10% of disadvantaged students in the United States were able to score in the top quarter of reading performance in the United States. On average across OECD countries, 11% of disadvantaged students scored amongst the highest performers in reading in their countries.
In the United States, low- and high-performing students are clustered in the same schools less often than the OECD average.”

[Arcadia]

10 hours ago, cintinative said:

One article quoted the ACT report as saying that kids need access to more rigorous curriculum.  I don't have a kid in a B&M school, but my impression is that AP courses are much more widely utilized than when I was in high school 30 plus years ago, and yet the scores have dropped. 

Maybe the person was referring to this table in the ACT report (page 24 of 36). While DS17 is considered class of 2022, he took the ACT in 6th grade so no idea if his score is included in the report. He did hit all the benchmarks https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/2022/2022-National-ACT-Profile-Report.pdf

[silver]

7 hours ago, Miss Tick said:

According to the Ohio board of education website, "State law requires that schools administer the state-funded ACT or SAT to all grade 11 students, who entered grade 9 after July 1, 2014, in the spring of the school year."

So I would have expected the dip to occur in 2016?

 

7 hours ago, KSera said:

That is very helpful. Though actually, thinking through the math in the years, students who entered ninth grade in 2014 would have been in spring of their junior year in 2017. They would’ve started the year in 2016. So maybe that has something to do with it after all?

The data is being reported by graduating class year, not test year. So people that started high school in fall of 2014 are a graduating class of 2018, which is the year you see the significant drop. 

[Toocrazy!!]

I read college scholarship applications and have for the past 5-6 years. I don’t read enough to notice a downward trend, but I have always seen kids in high level math, a variety of AP classes, with 4.5 GPA’s and still missing these bench marks. It is very perplexing for sure! 

[Frances]

2 hours ago, Arcadia said:

 

They are further evidence of longtime systemic failures that were exacerbated by the pandemic. A return to the pre-pandemic status quo would be insufficient and a disservice to students and educators.””

This seems to be so true of many things, including our healthcare system and the service industry in the US.

[Frances]

55 minutes ago, Toocrazy!! said:

I read college scholarship applications and have for the past 5-6 years. I don’t read enough to notice a downward trend, but I have always seen kids in high level math, a variety of AP classes, with 4.5 GPA’s and still missing these bench marks. It is very perplexing for sure! 

Do you think it’s because in lots of high school math classes, HW and extra credit compromise too much of the grade? I never turned in math HW in high school or college, although of course it was assigned. Our grades were based entirely on exams. Then after a year of grad school in Psychology at a state university where again, my grades in my three Stats classes were based entirely on exams and projects, I transferred to an Ivy League U and switched to Statistics. Suddenly I was not only handing in three problem sets every week for grading, but I was grading about 30 per week as a TA. And the culture was just very different. Students would try to argue over every little point on HW and exams and when some of them didn’t get the results they wanted, they would go to the professor. Prior to this, I had always been taught that HW was our responsibility because it was how you learned and mastered the material. We could always ask questions and get help, but ultimately, it was in our own best interest to do it. But we didn’t get any points or grades for doing it. It was just expected.