Almanac of Higher Education 2011
Few Students Are Ready for College Coursework, ACT Says
August 17, 2011
| HOME: Almanac 2011 | SECTIONS: Finance | The Profession | Student Demographics |
| Access and Equity | Technology | International |
A minority of high-school students who took the ACT college-entrance exam and graduated in 2011 met the ACT's minimum scores for college readiness in all four of these core areas: English, mathematics, reading, and science. Hispanic and black students were especially likely to be underprepared according to this measure.
| Percent of students deemed ready, 2011 | |||||
| English | Mathematics | Reading | Science | All four areas | |
| Asian | 76% | 71% | 62% | 46% | 41% |
| White | 77% | 54% | 62% | 37% | 31% |
| All students | 66% | 45% | 52% | 30% | 25% |
| Two or more races | 68% | 41% | 53% | 28% | 22% |
| Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander | 55% | 36% | 39% | 19% | 15% |
| American Indian/Alaska Native | 47% | 25% | 36% | 15% | 11% |
| Hispanic/Latino | 47% | 30% | 35% | 15% | 11% |
| Black/African-American | 35% | 14% | 21% | 6% | 4% |
| Note: The ACT designated as ready high-school students who met minimum benchmark scores on its subject-area tests. Those scores were set 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 a credit-bearing college course requiring skills in that subject area. | |||||
| Average scores on the ACT by sex and race/ethnicity, 2011 | ||||||
| English | Mathematics | Reading | Science | Composite score | Change since 2007 in composite score | |
| Men | 20.2 | 21.6 | 21.1 | 21.4 | 21.2 | n/a |
| Women | 20.9 | 20.6 | 21.4 | 20.5 | 21.0 | n/a |
| Asian | 22.8 | 25.1 | 22.9 | 23.1 | 23.6 | 1.0 |
| White | 22.1 | 22.1 | 22.7 | 22.1 | 22.4 | 0.3 |
| Two or more races | 20.7 | 20.7 | 21.6 | 20.9 | 21.1 | 0.1 |
| Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander | 18.6 | 19.9 | 19.4 | 19.5 | 19.5 | n/a |
| Hispanic/Latino | 17.6 | 19.2 | 18.9 | 18.8 | 18.7 | 0.0 |
| American Indian/Alaska Native | 17.5 | 18.6 | 19.1 | 18.9 | 18.6 | -0.3 |
| Black/African-American | 15.9 | 17.2 | 17.0 | 17.1 | 17.0 | 0.0 |
| Prefer not to respond/No response | 20.2 | 20.9 | 21.0 | 20.4 | 20.7 | -1.0 |
| All students | 20.6 | 21.1 | 21.3 | 20.9 | 21.1 | -0.1 |
| Note: The ACT exam is scored on a scale from 1 to 36. The designation "n/a" means data were not available. | ||||||
| Source: ACT | ||||||
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