ACT Scores & Why They Matter.

      Many of my son Nick’s friends are juniors and they are starting to get their ACT scores back.  A lot of them were disappointed. Many are planning to take ACT Prep classes before taking it again, hoping to improve their scores.  So, I thought it would be a good time to talk about standardized testing in general & specifically the ACT.  Standardized testing gets a bad rap in the Black community.  Historically, Black children have not performed well as a group on standardized tests. According to the 2014 ACT stats for Alabama, the mean score for Black students was 17.2.  I’m not sure how that’s even possible unless you were asleep. Even in better schools, studies say Black kids do worse on average. It is not true of all Black students of course. My middle son and many of his friends made scores of 32-36.  What made the difference?  What is the root cause for this poor performance?  Testing is not going away, so what can we do to raise ACT scores?

       First, we need to understand the test.  The ACT doesn’t measure how smart you are per se.  It’s not an IQ test. A person may be very intelligent and have extreme potential, but if they have not mastered the subject matter while in school then they will probably not do well on this test.  The ACT simply tests for college and career readiness.  It answers the question of whether or not a student has learned enough English, Reading, Science and Math to be considered educated. The scores are from 11-36.   Each correlates to a level of mastery in a subject. 

     That is why I have an issue with the tendency to excuse black students’ bad scores.  The truth is, a lot of the time they have not been challenged enough! They don't have a good handle on grammar and composition causing poor performance in English. They haven't read enough difficult books to perform well on the Science Reasoning and Reading Comprehension which are really both reading tests. So, yes, the scores come back: 17.2.   There is no mystery to the ACT, it is a tool to gauge where our students are. The ACT tests the skills needed to perform at a high enough level to successfully engage in college level work.  Colleges use it to determine if a student will be able to function in college and if they will be able to read and comprehend the material.  Will they be able to write the papers, can they do the math?

      The ACT has set benchmarks- at the 8^th (Explore), 10^th (Plan) & 12th (ACT)  grade levels  The benchmarks are numerical levels your student should be at if they plan to be ready for college.  If they are not, there is time to adjust and improve.  High ACT scores are an indicator to colleges that a student has high potential for degree completion. Low scores mean the opposite- the likelihood of them finishing a degree program is slim. Will ACT prep courses help?  They might help with strategy, but not with mastery of the content. At best, these prep courses help a student identify weaknesses to focus on for the next testing iteration. 

    Secondly, MASTER MATH! The earlier, the better.  Ideally, you should plan for your student to master arithmetic by 6^th grade. Then take Pre-Algebra in the 7^th & Algebra in the 8^th.  This will allow them to go as high in math as possible.  Even if they are not “good” , they need high level math. They should memorize math facts & formulas. If they are struggling you might need to get a tutor. I couldn’t help my 10^th grader with Algebra 1 & changed textbooks twice, tried on-line & ended with a text way too hard for me even with answers.  I finally broke down & took him to a place called Mathnesium in Inverness, AL.  For $300/month, he had unlimited tutoring sessions. I took him & the text book to the owner and said help!!  It was an awesome experience.  He had mastered all of the Algebra 1 concepts & the text ended up being very advanced.  The best thing was Nick had confidence in his math ability.  We used the service for 2 months.

     Lastly, the thing that really has the greatest lasting impact is READING. Read, read, and read. I can tell you already-your school does not assign enough reading.  Students need to read full length books that increase in difficulty.  Back when my son Devin was in the 4^th grade, one of my husband’s clients' kids went to the Advent school (a private school in Birmingham, Al)  and I always liked to know about school reading lists.   Her daughter had books like the Prince & the Pauper assigned, while my neighbors in Hoover were reading A 4^th grade Nothing .  The Advent is a feeder school for The Altamont and Indian Springs- both are nationally ranked, elite private schools.  Altamont has rigorous reading requirements for their students- 3 books a month, not including school work.  From the 5^th grade on my son Devin read from a Classic book list.  He read a lot of books (& skipped a few), but we never did any reading comprehension books.  They can just read & tell you what happened. Devin &  I both were shocked when he got a 33 on Reading & a 33 on Science (lots of reading) on his ACT.  We did nothing special, but read lots of good books.  * He loved reading though and read all the Harry Potters in the 6^th grade.

     What if your student hates reading?  Or doesn’t hate it just could live without it?  Make him read anyway- tie it to food, the phone, car keys- after 30 pages you can have dinner that usually works.

     Having better ACT scores is possible for black students, but not if they don’t do the hard work.  It’s the same for everybody.

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure."

          -Colin Powell

That may sound corny, but it's true.  As parents we must hold our kids to a high standard.
Gloria J. Adams


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