According to a new study published in USA Today, graduating high school seniors are not prepared to take on college curriculum.
ACT released research which states 60 percent of 2012 high school graduates who have taken the ACT run the risk of failing in college. Continuing in the study, ACT shows that 2012 scores in reading and English have decreased to 20.5, a 0.8 difference from scores in 2008.
On the incline are math and science scores, which have increased from four years ago to 21.1 and 20.9, while the average composite score for the ACT is a 21.1 out of a total 36 points.
Dr. Brian Crother, Head of the Biology Department, weighed in on the growing number of unready graduates and the 21.1 average.
“I can tell you that once we instituted admission requirements [here at Southeastern] and raised those admission requirements, our students have gotten better,” Crother said. “There is no doubt about it. The ACT, SAT, rank of the class and that’s probably across the board.”
With math and science scores increasing, the data still states that only 46 percent of students on the math portion of the ACT are prepared, and even lower, only 31 percent of students on the science portion are ready for higher education courses.
“The ACT science questions are tricky. I have a daughter who is a senior in high school right now. I look at these ACT questions in science and there is so much information in each question that students try to pork through, and it turns out you don’t have to read three quarters of that,” said Crother on the low average of graduates ready to take on college sciences. “They’re asking something about a tiny section and you have to solve the problem of what they’re asking before you go through all of this information. They’re really tricky questions, they are not straight forward.”
High school graduates applying to Southeastern must score a 21 or higher on the ACT or at least a 2.0 core GPA.
Crother cited the ACT test as lacking critical thinking questions.
“The thing is, is that these [ACT] exams aren’t given to teach, the exams are given to assess,” said Crother. “So the high schools are the places where they should be engaging students in critical thinking. These exams are just assessing what they’ve done in high school. It’s the job of the secondary education to instill critical thinking and that is not happening.”
He also found the ACT to be geared more towards memorization methods rather than problem solving-based skills, evidence as to why graduates are unready for college.
Southeastern has, however, established its Early Start Program, which teaches college courses in high schools all over the state. The program is the largest of its kind in Louisiana with over 3,500 students involved.
“The high school teachers teach the same material out of the same textbook as they would if you were taking a general biology course here [at Southeastern],” explained Crother. “Some of the teachers want the exams upfront because they want to teach the exam and the professors are saying ‘no,’ teach them the material, don’t teach them the exam.”
The Early Start Program, with the help of Southeastern professors, is working to change these downward statistics to make sure high school graduates are prepared to enter their college career or, as Crother said, to keep students from being “thrown into a maze they can’t get out of.”