Latino high school graduates are more prepared for college and workforce training than they were in 2002, according to a recent report released by The ACT, a national achievement testing firm.
The report, “State of College Readiness for Latino Students,” examined college readiness among Latino students in 11th and 12th grades. According to the report, Latino high school graduates of the class of 2006 increased their average ACT composite, English, mathematics, reading and science scores.
Researchers found the improvements particularly astounding, since nearly 20,000 more Latino graduates took the ACT in 2006 than in 2002.
Improvements in math and science among Latinos in the class 2006 were a direct result of more challenging course work, experts say.
“Between 2002 and 2006, there were slight increases in the percentages of Latino high school students taking higher-level courses. Students enrolled in higher-level mathematics courses, such as trigonometry or calculus, and higher-level science courses, such as chemistry or physics, appeared to increase average ACT mathematics and science scores of Latino high school graduates,” says Scott Gomer, spokesman for The ACT.
Although the improvements seen between 2002 and 2006 in ACT college readiness in English, mathematics and science for Latino high school graduates were equal or slightly lower than those seen nationally, the Latino graduates of 2006 fared no better than their 2002 counterparts in college-level reading.
“There was no significant change in this one area, and there may be a number of reasons why this number did not change. However, we can only document the information. We don’t always have an explanation for what the numbers show,” says Gomer.
