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Percent of [ACT-Tested] Students Meeting College Benchmarks
Number of students tested: 1,300,599
English 69%
Mathematics 43%
Reading 53%
Science 28%
Meeting All Four 23%
Half are ready to do college-level reading ----
by Race/Ethnicity: Number Tested, % of Test-taking Population, Average Score
African American/Black - 152,412 / 12% / 17.0
American Indian/Alaska Native - 14,044 / 1% / 18.9
Caucasian American/White - 779,147 / 60% / 22.1
Hispanic - 93,137 / 7% / 18.7
Asian American/Pacific Islander - 42,257 / 3% / 22.6
Other/No Response 219,602 / 17% / 21.6
source:
ACT HIGH SCHOOL PROFILE: SECTION I, EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PAGE 5 (pdf file)
HS Graduating Class of 2007
National Report National
Total Students in Report: 1,300,599
I love those 219,602 ACT test takers who are Other or No Response --- !
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17 comments:
Less than half are ready to do college level math. But they weren't going to go into science, engineering or math anyway so who cares. And besides, the ACT is not authentic assessment. And if they really want to go into math, science or engineering they can because they have the higher order thinking skills. Except the kids from Irvington. The teachers there are hard graders and apparently no one meets the grade and everyone is inferentially deficient.
GO FIGURE
Those figures really are incredible, aren't they??
These are kids taking the ACT -- I don't think most kids who know they're headed towards a community college take the ACT (or SAT), do they?
I have never once heard any administrator here in Irvington say, "Our students are prepared to do college level math when they graduate."
Never once!
And I do know kids from here who've dropped out of their college math courses.
The most amazing thing was the Transition to High School meeting where one parent of rising freshman asked whether Irvington grads were prepared to do college-level writing. The principal said "Sure," (I've heard from two parents whose kids had a horrible time trying to do college-level writing) and then said, "The one thing our students are having trouble with in college is reading."
This was said as if it was no big deal -- "the amount of reading" -- our graduates are having trouble handling a college reading load.
This was said as if it was an interesting fact they'd just learned from Irvington grads who'd come back to visit.
You were not happy in Irvington. That's obvious. Many Irvington graduates are successful and happy so please just stop - you know nothing about them and only seem to pick up on the negatives. It's interesting that you never bother to talk to anyone who is happy here.
Anonymous,
I'm not from Irvington, and I don't often venture downstate.
But up here, some of us prefer that projects funded by the government [like public schools] focus on relevant success. Though I'm glad you're happy in Irvington, your personal happiness isn't the primary responsibility of the state or local government.
"Our students are prepared to do college level math when they graduate."
College level math doesn't mean much for many departments. What are they down to now, one course in math? Back when I taught college math and computer science, many students didn't select a major and then look at the math requirements. They looked at the math requirements and then selected a major. Math was a big reason for changes in degree program. Other departments complained about the math courses our department taught to their students.
When I was there, a course in statistics was a big hurdle for many students. That course was under attack. It had to be watered down or eliminated. Those departments didn't want to lose more students.
You can't just look at graduation rates. You have to dig deep to find out whether college students are doing what they really want to do. Unfortunately, by college, most blame is placed squarely on the students, and most students blame themselves too. Just think about all of those kids who had lots of hands-on fun with circuits, motors, or robots in high school, but won't be able to handle calculus and differential equations in college. No engineering degree for them. They can go to vocational school.
"Many Irvington graduates are successful and happy so please just stop - "
Stop what? Stop trying to improve education? I've run into many people over the years who are just complainers. They don't do anything. Catherine's a doer. What do you think KTM is all about (for how many years now)? Doing it yourself because the school won't or can't. This is a huge issue for many parents.
Criticism does not always have to be mitigated by kudos at every turn.
Many Irvington graduates are successful and happy so please just stop - you know nothing about them and only seem to pick up on the negatives.
There are two reasons why "stopping" isn't the right thing to do
First: the word "many."
Yes, many Irvington students are successful and happy.
Others aren't.
Parents and graduates have some obligation to insist that the administration do its job and make sure that all Irvington students reach their full academic potential. That is the district mission statement.
The other reason concerns the very extensive degree of tutoring going on in this district, including the fact that Irvington teachers take jobs as tutors to Irvington students.
When wealthy parents can hire tutors in several different subjects, the playing field isn't level.
Overall, I think happy & successful people have a little bit of an obligation to look out for those who aren't as happy and successful-----
AND I should clarify: we were some of the happiest parents in town K-5, and we've had fantastic SPED teachers. (That's not to say everyone else was "happy" in K-5, obviously.)
Moreover, although I think there's too much tutoring going on at the high school, the principal is extremely good at his job and I'm hoping the district will hold onto him as long as possible.
While these ACT statistics do look bad, there is something to keep in mind. Some states like Colorado and Illinois (and maybe others), administer the ACT to all eleventh graders as part of statewide testing programs. It is not just college bound students taking the test.
oh -- good point
I'd forgotten that.
otoh, I think many or most states have set college readiness for all as the goal, haven't they?
I wonder what the cut-off is for "college readiness" in reading, math, etc.
I should see if I can figure it out from the report.
"It is not just college bound students taking the test."
Well, their results guarantee that, right? Are the results a reflection of the abilities of the students or do they reflect the abilities of the schools? How dumb and unmotivated do you have to be to get those scores? It's too easy to blame the kids.
Look at the actual questions that are wrong. Did those students have a course that covered the material or not? It doesn't matter where they are headed after high school. All kids need to be taught well.
This again brings up an issue with statistics. Numbers don't tell you exactly what's happening. You have to do case studies of individuals. I don't debug programs with statistics. I find an error and track it down, line-by-line in the code. I trace the exact cause of the error. I fix that error.
I had too many programming students who tried to fix programs using guess and check; edit, build, run, check. They never traced a problem line-by-line. The error might go away (temporarily), but they really don't know why and they really don't know if they caused another problem.
Schools need to find out why some students do well and some don't. They can't just look at some vague statistical correlation with SES and then play guess and check. Schools can ask parents exactly what they do for their kids; teaching, reteaching, tutoring, and setting expectations. Our state has a questionnaire that they send out to parents. The only question they ever ask is whether parents feel comfortable helping their kids with homework, whatever that means. Schools know that successful students have involved parents, but they really don't want to know the dirty details. It won't make them look very good.
Numbers don't tell you exactly what's happening. You have to do case studies of individuals.
I was thinking about you today --- about how you've made this point a number of times & I've never quite gotten it.
Today it was crystal clear WHY we need case studies....but now I'm so addled I've forgotten WHY.
oh heck
it'll come to me
Schools know that successful students have involved parents, but they really don't want to know the dirty details.
I had an interesting email from Niki (I'll ask if I can post), who started teaching in 1961 and saw the change in schools firsthand. (I've got to see if I can get her to write something about this for us....)
Some of what she saw - a big part of it, which I haven't been sensitive to - was a major change in the parents in terms of respect for authority, value placed on hard work, etc.
She said she's had more than a few kids in affluent suburban schools who swear at teachers, dress them down, etc. Then their parents back them.
That reminded me of a school board attorney from another state who once told me that I'm in the category of parents "who don't expect the school to un-discipline your typical child."
I know, from teachers having mentioned it, that there are some parents around here who would fit that bill.
However, the main complaint we hear about parents is that we pressure our kids to succeed, and we pressure the school to put our kids in classes where they don't belong.
One of the principals has said that the only parents he/she has trouble with are the parents of the accelerated kids.
So: part of what teachers & administrators mean when they talk about "involved parents" is parents who a) discipline their kids and b) make sure their kids get homework done.
The problem is that there is now a "part C," which is help with homework.
No one wants to acknowledge that part or figure out what it means.
Some might think that case studies are just glorified anecdotes, but carefully documented, they show specific problems. Fixing one of these problems might involve a trade-off, but at least you can make the decision with full understanding.
Our schools don't make decisions like that. They use a thematic or top-down approach based on their assumptions and beliefs. They decide what they want to do and then make reality fit in. A bottom-up, case study technique is incompatible with this approach.
Our schools decided that they were going to use full-inclusion for all of K-8, except for math in 7th and 8th grades, and foreign language in 8th grade. When parents raise issues about low expectations or curricula, the schools have no way to deal with them. Problems can't inform their belief system, to use their jargon.
Schools are not based on solving problems. They are based on pushing their philosophy. Statistics allow schools to spin problems as they see fit ("It is not just college bound students taking the test.") You can't do that with carefully-defined case studies.
"One of the principals has said that the only parents he/she has trouble with are the parents of the accelerated kids."
You see that the problem is not the issue that the parents raise, but the parents raising the issue. Definitely not a customer-focused organization.
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