Waiting for public and private schools to start celebrating their improved ACT scores.

Illinois ACT scores improve as number of test takers drops

Illinois' graduating Class of 2017 posted a 21.4 score across all four subjects on the ACT college entrance exam — the highest in the last five years — and made gains in the percent of kids considered ready for key college classes.

Illinois also topped the national average of 21.

But there's a catch: The number of Illinois test takers dropped by about 21,500 students compared to the Class of 2016, as the state began a transition to provide the rival SAT college entrance exam to high school juniors.

That decline in test takers probably boosted the Class of 2017 results because students who seek out the test and plan to attend college are more likely to be high achievers than students who do not.

Both private and public school students in Illinois are included in ACT results for graduating classes, which include 2017 graduates who took the ACT as sophomores, juniors or seniors. In the past, it was the pivotal group of public high school juniors in Illinois that drove the scores. That's because the state for years gave a state-paid ACT exam to all eligible high school juniors as part of required state testing, and kids of all academic levels had to take the college entrance exam.

But by 2015, the ACT was no longer mandated — though it was still a state-paid exam for juniors that year — and because of budget woes, there was no statewide college entrance exam for juniors in 2016. That means the large statewide group of public school juniors was not melded into the ACT's graduating Class of 2017. The first statewide SAT exam was launched in the spring.

For the ACT Class of 2017 in Illinois, "The results likely include fewer students who were not preparing for college than previous years, when the test was required for all students in all districts," said ACT spokesman Ed Colby.
As state switches to SAT exam, some districts also paying to offer ACT

Colby also said, "I believe it is very possible that the number of ACT-tested students in Illinois will drop for the 2018 grad class, since the state actually administered the SAT to all students in that grad class. But we won't know until next year."

Michigan was in a similar position, switching to the SAT and seeing a drop of nearly 85,500 test takers in the Class of 2017.

Illinois also lost its standing as the state with the highest number of ACT test takers. For the Class of 2017, Texas had the most participants, 146,608, while Illinois tested 134,901. Five years ago, Illinois tested 160,066 students. Nationwide, 2.03 million students took the ACT, a drop of about 60,000 students compared to the Class of 2016.

Illinois would have lost more students in the ACT testing but for individual school districts that paid for their juniors to take the exam at school. ACT data show that 156 school districts in Illinois, close to 20 percent of all districts, paid for 88,289 juniors to take the spring 2016 ACT at school.

Lake County's Adlai E. Stevenson High School was one of the districts that paid for juniors to take the ACT at school — for both 2016 and 2017. For the Class of 2017, the school earned a composite score of 26.9, which matched a school record of 2016 the year before, said spokesman Jim Conrey. The top score on the ACT is 36.
Suburban parents want lawmakers to remove SAT scores from college transcripts

Statewide, Illinois posted an English score of 21 for the Class of 2017, up from 20.5 the year before; a math score of 21.2, up from 20.6; a reading score of 21.6, up from 21; and a science score of 21.3, up from 20.6. The composite score of 21.4 is higher than 20.8 the year before and is also higher than the national average of 21.

Illinois' Class of 2017 also exceeded national averages on the percentage of students considered college-ready by ACT in the key areas of English, math, reading and science. Those figures have typically been considered low both in Illinois and nationwide.

In English, 66 percent of Illinois students were considered college-ready based on ACT's analysis, up from 64 percent in 2016. In math, 44 percent were prepared, up from 41 percent; in reading, 48 percent were college-ready, up from 42 percent; and in science, 39 percent were prepared, compared with 36 percent. Thirty percent of test takers were considered college-ready in all four subjects, up from 26 percent the year before.

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The world needs ditch diggers, too.


Seriously.

sounds similar to the cubbie road to success

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And men have lost their reason.

Most of the charter schools were near the top in ACT scores for the past few years. That can be deceiving. You have to look deeper into all those numbers.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

I got a composite score of 31 over two exams.

16 and 15?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

That's probably what I would have gotten had I taken it a year later when they introduced the writing portion. I always hated essay exams, not because I can't write good, but because my hand and wrist would always cramp up.

Probably why they want the SAT like out here. No essay anymore.

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Elections have consequences.

You mean like how most of their students have good parents who value education which is why they are in a charter school in the first place? Funny how their ACT scores are higher.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

They took a composite?

In my day if you took it twice, they took the higher score but if you took it 3 times it was an average.

No child deserves a better education than any other child.


There is no realistic way to make it equal, but it just kinda sucks and kinda feeds into the rich get richer. More money= better schooling = more earning power= more money


Rinse and repeat

Back in the day ACT scores made more sense. I had a buddy scored a 9. Is that even possible anymore?

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Lowest I've ever heard of was whatever Garnett got 13 I think?

Did he not go to the exam at all?

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

That's true. Think about it. Take any non-value adding piece of shit poor person. They have kids. They send them to public school. Cuz they can't afford private. Kid does well given the circumstances. You know. Poverty, crime, all that shit. She can't get into enrichment classes though. Cuz the school is poor. Parents try to help out but they're working four jobs between the two of them. In the end the kids falls behind peers in richer neighborhoods. Gets worse test scores then them too. So yeah DAC is right. This kids' parents are pieces of shit who don't value education. Cuz they're poor dumbasses.

God only knows with that guy. Probably misread his score which was actually 6.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Nope. I am not saying their parents don't care but the schools teach to the test from the moment you enter their schools. You may not be able to spell your name but you will probably do well on the test.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

You're right...there is no realistic way to make it equal. Even if all kids went to the same school, some are going to succeed more than others based on the following (which is not a comprehensive list):

1. They have two parents
2. They have parents who stress the importance of education and are willing to limit outside distractions (TV, video games, etc) and lay out high expectations for academic achievement
3. They have parents who are actively involved in helping with homework
4. They have parents who may be very knowledgeable in certain fields and can tutor them when they have trouble

Some kids can overcome those obstacles, and in some cases may be better off (compared to kids who have parents who do everything for them and don't let them think for themselves). But in general, there can never be truly equal education, only minimums that we want all kids to attain.

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I have heard many times of teachers teaching to State standardized tests. I have never heard that a teacher taught to SAT/ACT.

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Elections have consequences.

And all these kids now prep for the tests. In our time, they specifically advised us not to study for the ACT/SAT. It was supposed to be a measure of what you knew, not what you could memorize the month before the test.

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Freedom is our Strength.

just ordered a set of 500 SAT vocab flash cards for my 8th grader.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

I think you get a 9 if you fill in the bubbles for your name.

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Yes. I have heard of private SAT coaching and even extracurricular SAT prep study groups at school. Just never heard of in class instruction like the do with the state exams.

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Elections have consequences.

That was part of the process of weeding out the dopes.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

We took the PACT at school and a girl got like a 6 or 7. She tried to cheat on a geography test freshman year and asked my friend how many equators there were. He said two and she believed him. Dumbest human that I ever knew that wasn't in a special program. If she wasn't such a witch people would have helped her more because well, teenage hormones.

Some schools have those classes as semester electives; other schools hold those classes (for a fee) before and after school.

The SAT is (or was, when I "took" it) half math. I suck at math (I got a whopping 20 on the ACT math section), so I cheated. I suck at standardized tests in general, but I actually consider myself to be pretty smart, so I was fine with the cheating.

You are very ignorant about what is going on in low achieving schools.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

It's Beerdown not Beardown.

Before the state test changed to the SAT, teachers spent a considerable amount of time teaching ACT test taking strategies. The ACT was part of the state test that was used to assess a school's achievement. Curriculums were changed and modified to address the material on the ACT. I have had this exact discussions with HS teachers about this topic because I was interested in how they were "teaching to the test."

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

Never heard of him.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.