Texas’ 2007 graduates score below national ACT average
McALLEN — More than 76,000 Texas high school seniors who took the ACT in the 2006-07 school year scored below the national average in the standardized test’s four subject areas, according to a national report being released today.The national and state-by-state breakdown ACT Inc. plans to unveil will show more than 1.3 million students took the test and scored an average of 20.7 in English, a 21.0 in mathematics, 21.5 in reading and 21.0 in science. The scoring is on a scale of 1 to 36.
“We continue to see large numbers of students not taking the math and science courses, not taking the core courses, that we know essentially prepare them, have them ready for those freshman college courses,” said Richard L. Ferguson, ACT Inc.’s chief executive officer and chairman of the board.
Texas, though, was close in all four subjects. State test takers scored an average of 19.5 in English, 20.8 in math, 20.6 in reading and 20.4 in science.
Belinda Simons, a counselor at the Science Academy of South Texas in Mercedes, said all students at the school are required to take the SAT and ACT. She said students have benefited from the academy’s long-standing requirement of four math and six science courses to graduate. Each student must take physics, chemistry, biology and environmental science.
Simons said the structure helps keep students focused.
“In a regular high school, you encourage but they get distracted with all the choices they have,” she said. “Here, they don’t have choices.”
The state mirrored a national trend of more Hispanics taking the test in the last school year. Texas had 18,493 Hispanics taking the test; in 2006 there were 18,111. Nationally, there was a more than 7,000-student jump in Hispanics taking the test — from more than 85,000 in 2006 to more than 93,000 in 2007.
Simons read the advanced version of the report on Tuesday and said nothing in particular looked unusual to her. She said Texas students should benefit from a new state graduation requirement that they take four years of math and science. The rule goes into effect starting with this fall’s freshman class.
Sci Tech isn’t the only area school that has sought to get students better prepared for the tests.
The Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school district last year began requiring sophomores at its three high schools to take practice ACT tests to determine their scoring ability. The district will begin a similar program this fall for freshmen at the schools, said Arianna Vazquez, the district’s public information officer.
The district has also had standardized test academies on selected Saturdays during the school year.
At Hidalgo High School, counselors begin emphasizing the test as early as students’ freshman year, said Debbie McKenna, a career pathways counselor at the school. She said students can get fee waivers if they take the test the second semester of their junior year, but must pay for themselves if tests are taken in the first semester of that year.
McKenna said the ACT is emphasized just as heavily as the SAT.
“We really encourage them to take both,” she said. “If they don’t take either, we encourage them to take one. You are going to have some students that don’t want to do anything.”
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Daniel Perry covers education and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4454.
