State ACT Scores Still Lag National Average

The statewide ACT average held steady this year, ending Illinois’ two-year streak of rising tests scores, according to test data released today.

As in 2004, students averaged a 20.3 on the 36-point college entrance test, this time with slight improvements in English and science, no change in math and a dip in reading scores.

Before last year, the state average had increased from 20.1 in 2002 and 20.2 in 2003.

“It’s good the scores aren’t decreasing,” said Becky Watts, director of public information for the state board of education. “But we need to get them increasing.”

The state has been below the national average – which this year stayed the same at 20.9 – for all four years.

Those figures are somewhat skewed, however, because Illinois is one of only two states – along with Colorado – where ACT testing is required for all students.

That means in Illinois, some 136,000 students took the ACT last spring as part of the Prairie State Achievement Exam, whereas in other states, the test was largely taken only by college-bound kids.

“It’s going to be harder for us to move those numbers than other states,” Watts said, pointing to the mandated testing. “But we also think it’s the right thing to do.”

To increase test scores then, the state should focus on beefing up the curriculum, said Jeff Mirel, professor of history and education studies at the University of Michigan.

“The fact that the scores are not going up or not going down, there’s not much to tell about that,” Mirel said. “Any single year change is not going to be that dramatic.”

To effect change over the long term, Mirel said, the state needs to challenge students more – requiring more difficult courses, for instance, or paring course offerings to emphasis the core classes.

And harder courses require better educated teachers, Mirel said, meaning the state needs to emphasize professional development.

“There is an enormous amount that has to be done to fix American high schools,” Mirel said.

State Sen. Miguel del Valle of Chicago said: “We haven’t done enough to tighten up and make the high school curriculum more rigorous. Otherwise, these scores would be going up.”

That’s one reason de Valle sponsored Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s legislation to make high school graduation requirements tougher, which is waiting on the governor’s signature.

But that measure “still falls short of where we need to be,” del Valle said. Too many high school graduates are unprepared for college, meaning higher costs for remedial education and longer stays at college to get a diploma, he said.

– Daily Herald news services contributed to this report.