As high school graduates from the Class of 2012 prepare to begin their first year of college, a new report released Wednesday by ACT says the vast majority of those students are not academically ready for the college experience.
The lack of college readiness is particularly pronounced among Hispanic and African-American students, according to the report, titled “The Condition of College & Career Readiness: 2012,” which looked at readiness in English, reading, math and science.
Experts chimed in and said the results – while not surprising or new – serve as further evidence that America’s K-12 system is broken and in need of solutions that range from blending college with high school to decreased reliance on test scores and increased efforts to ensure that a high school diploma actually signifies college readiness.
ACT officials noted that the population of 1.66 million ACT test-takers in 2012 is larger and more diverse an more reflective of the overall U.S. population than ever before, and that nine states required virtually all high school graduates to take the ACT.
While the overall scores are bothersome, the ACT report shows that they are relatively unchanged from last year.
The gaps along racial and ethnic lines turned up in the report mirror other disparities in achievement at the K-12 level, experts noted.
“The question for colleges and universities, as well as K-12 schools, is whether the admission exams — ACT in this instance — are telling them anything they don’t already know,” said David Hawkins, director of Public Policy and Research at the Arlington, Va.-based National Association for College Admission Counseling.
