By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
Most high school juniors in the area and across the state aren’t ready for college based on scores of the recently released ACT readiness test.
The test given to students statewide is an indicator of their ability to succeed in math, English, reading and science at the college level.
Unlike other states where only students who are pursuing college take the test, Arkansas requires all juniors to take the test, which tends to lower the overall scores.
Based on the test, 80 to 90 percent of Jacksonville juniors, now seniors, are not college ready.
Even Cabot, which usually produces good test scores at the elementary and middle school level, had less than 50 percent of its students test ready for college, yet still beat the state average in all four test sections: math, reading English and science.
“Certainly, we are not content with our students’ levels of performance on this year’s ACT, but we are not totally surprised. Any time students face a new assessment system, we anticipate a drop in performance,” said Dr. Tony Thurman, superintendent of Cabot schools.
“This implementation dip is often followed by an upward trend after the first year or two. As students become more familiar with the assessment system, their performance typically improves. If you look back at the first few years of Benchmark and End of Course assessment results, you see this same trend,” the superintendent said.
“Additionally, the state’s curriculum frameworks have been revised and it takes some time for teachers to fully understand how to effectively teach all that the standards require,” Thurman explained.
Dr. John Tackett, deputy superintendent for Pulaski County Special School District, said it’s a good thing having all students take the test. “We need to make students more aware of the ACT, college and scholarships,” he said.
But he added that the disadvantage is that many students were taking the test for the first time. “Students can start taking the test in the second semester of their sophomore year, and retake at least six other times before graduation,” Tackett said.
“So those students coming into high school thinking about college usually have taken it at least once before their junior year,” Tackett explained
Students, overall, scored worse in math and best in reading.
Lisa Academy North students scored the best in the area with 41 percent making the “college ready” cut in math, 91 percent made the cut in English and 68 percent in reading.
North Pulaski High School had the worst percentage on the math portion of the test with just 9.5 percent scoring as “college ready.”
Jacksonville High School was right behind with only 9.9 percent meeting the standards. Jacksonville also had the lowest English score with only 25.3 percent scoring well enough for college. Next on the bottom came North Pulaski with 39.2 percent making the grade.
When it comes to reading, only 12.3 percent of Jacksonville seniors can read well enough to make it through college, according to the statewide test. Next lowest was Lighthouse Charter’s Flightline Upper Academy where only 23.8 percent scored well enough on the reading test.
Dr. Belinda Shook, head of the Beebe schools, echoed Tackett and Thurman’s thoughts.
“When we started testing all students, we knew the scores were likely to be lowered. If you will notice, we tested 199 students. When we compare our scores where we have tested all our students in Arkansas, to states that test only the upper-level students, it is not a fair comparison.”
“As far as the state goes, I am pleased with how Beebe’s students did in comparison to the state scores. Overall, our scores are remaining fairly consistent. We are working on some new ideas in our district that I believe will boost our scores,” Shook said.
The Cabot superintendent added, “When we administered the Benchmark Exams, and even the PARCC assessments last year, educators, parents and teachers knew the exams were developed specifically to assess the state’s curriculum frameworks. The ACT is based on the ACT College and Career Ready Skills, not the Arkansas frameworks.”
Thurman continued, “Unlike the PARCC assessment, the questions are not developed directly from the state standards. Our students will become more familiar with the type of ACT questioning in the coming years. We also believe that participating in the ACT Aspire assessments will help to prepare our students to face the ACT during their junior year of high school.
All the superintendents said teachers and administrators were committed to preparing students to be successful on the exam.
Tackett said PCSSD students are making solid strides with “Enginuity,” the on-line program the district is using to help students perform better on tests.
“The program is available to students 24/7,” said Tackett, adding that the on-line program is just one way the district is working to make students better prepared for college.
Most Arkansas colleges require students to score a 19 across the board for students to be unconditionally enrolled.
Here are the ACT results for area schools:
LONOKE
At Lonoke, 138 juniors took the test in April in math. The average score was 18.2, meaning 21 percent of students met the test expectations. In English the average score was 18.4, meaning 53.6 percent scored proficient or better on that section of the test, and in the reading portion the average score was 19.1 and just 30.4 percent scored at or above expectations.
In science the average score was 18.9 with 20.3 percent of the students meeting test expectations. Just 11.6 percent of Lonoke juniors meet the readiness bar on all four test sections.
ENGLAND
Fifty-three students took the test, scoring 16.6 on the math section, meaning just 10.3 percent passed the test with “college ready” scores. The average score on the English section was 17 and 43.1 percent did well on the test and in reading the average score was 17.9 with 24.1 percent of the students meeting expectations.
Juniors had an average score of 17.3 in science, meaning 10.3 percent scored proficient or better. Only 5.2 percent scored high enough on all four tests to show their college readiness.
CARLISLE
The high school had 53 of its juniors take the test. They had an average math score of 18.2 with 24.5 percent scoring well in that section, in English the average score was 17.1 with 39.6 percent scoring proficient or better; and in reading the average score was 17.7 with just 28.3 percent showing they were “college ready.”
Carlisle students had an average score of 18.6 in science, meaning about 21 percent scored proficient or better. Overall, 17 percent of the students scored “ready” on all four test sections.
CABOT
In Cabot, 689 juniors took the test. The juniors had an average math score of 19.7 meaning 29.8 percent scored well on that section. The average score in English was 19.5 with 59.8 of the students making the test cut while the average reading score was 20.6 and 40.1 percent tested “college ready.”
Cabot juniors had an average score of 22.4 in science, which meant that 34 percent scored well on the test. The overall composite score for Cabot juniors was 20.8.
SYLVAN HILLS
The school gave the test to 239 juniors. In math the score was 18.0 and just 17.2 percent scored “college ready.” In English the score was 17.0 and 42.7 percent of the students made the cut and in reading the score was 18.4 with 25.5 percent hitting college-level scores.
The juniors had an average score of 18.2 in science, meaning 14.2 percent were proficient or better on the test. Overall, 5.9 percent of those tested scored college ready on all four test sections.
NORTH PULASKI
The Falcons had only 74 juniors there to take the test. That group scored an average of 16.7 on the math portion, meaning only 9.9 percent were college ready. In English 39.2 percent scored proficient or better on the test and the average score was 17.
Slightly more than 32 percent scored as “college ready” on the reading portion and the juniors had an average test score of 18.9. On the science test, the average score was 18.4, meaning 18.9 percent made the appropriate grade on the test.
Overall, just 8.1 percent of North Pulaski juniors scored “college-ready” on all four sections of the test.
JACKSONVILLE
Jacksonville tested 162 juniors. In math the average score was 16.6 and only 9.9 percent scored proficient or better on the test. In English the average score was 14.7 with 25.3 percent of the students “college ready.” In reading just 12.3 percent made the cut on the test and the average score was 12.3 percent.
In science, the average score was 16.9 with about 7 percent of the students scoring well enough on the test. Overall, just 3.1 percent of the juniors scored well on all four sections of the test.
LISA ACADEMY NORTH
At Lisa Academy 22 juniors took the test and had an average math score of 21,4 meaning 40.9 percent scored as “college ready.” In English the ACT score was 24.4 and 90.9 percent made the cut on the test. In reading the average score was 24.1 which meant 68.1 percent scored well.
On the science portion of the ACT test, students had an average score of 21.0, meaning 31.8 percent scored proficient or better on the test. Almost 23 percent of the juniors scored well on all sections of the test.
FLIGHTLINE UPPER ACADEMY
Sixty-six students took the ACT and had an average math score of 17.5, meaning 18.2 percent were “college ready.” In English, the average score was also 17.5 but that meant 40.9 percent did well and for reading the average score was 18.2 which showed 25.8 percent of the students were college ready.
In science the average ACT test score was 18.0, meaning 16.7 percent of the students scored well on the test. Overall, 10.6 percent scored “College ready” on all four test sections.
BEEBE
There were 199 juniors who took the test. On the math portion they had an average score of 19.5 meaning 34.7 percent scored well on the test. In English the average score was 19.2 and 58.8 percent of the students scored “college ready,” and in reading the ACT average score was 20.1 which meant 42.7 percent did well.
Beebe juniors had an average score of 20.0 on the science test with 31.7 percent meeting expectations on the test. Overall, 19.6 percent hit the mark on all four test sections.
SEARCY
Searcy tested 259 juniors. That group had an average math score of 21 which means 44.4 percent of the students did well on the test. In English the average score was 21.2, meaning 66.4 percent scored proficient or better and in reading it was an average score of 21.6 with 49.4 percent doing well.
The students had an average science score of 21.5, meaning almost 44 percent hit the “college ready” mark on the exam. Overall, 29 percent of the juniors scored well on all four sections.
