ACT scores drop nationwide for everyone - except asian-americans

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://apnews.com/0a1274f987fa45c598dbdad9c6f0fb4a


Here is a reason for the score drop in one (very white) state, Nebraska.

The linked article states that Nebraska was anticipating scores to drop this year because it was the first year it required the ACT be taken by all students in the class. In prior years the ACT was completely voluntary.

The article also states that 17 states required all students to take the ACT this year.

Those states are all states with low asian populations:


Alabama
Kentucky
Louisiana
Mississippi
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
North Carolina
North Dakota
Utah
Wisconsin
Wyoming

Plus:
Ohio
Oklahoma
South Carolina
Tennessee
(Require ACT or SAT)


I could not find the 17th state.

Missouri. Most of these states are using ACT as their high school proficiency test (in lieu of PARCC or smarter balanced). That's why SAT changed recently BTW. When ACT was able to do 'double duty' (showing common core proficiency + college admissions) a number of states made it mandatory.

SAT changed so as to also be aligned to common core and valid for proficiency.

Then it would be interesting to see how much the states where it is mandatory dropped vs the states where it is not mandatory, as well as their demographic percentages.

So I found this article.

Virginia, where the ACT is not mandatory (only about a quarter students take it) did NOT experience a drop in scores and is above the national average.


https://www.roanoke.com/news/virginia/virginia-high-school-seniors-act-scores-beat-national-average-but/article_7a6cf2fe-d77d-5b35-9528-4dec45479229.html

I bet a lot of this drop vs asians not dropping is due to all of the students being required to test, even those on the trade school track, in states with low asian populations.

[Anonymous]

Another article.

South Carolina's scores went down significantly when they required every student to take the ACT instead of just the college bound students:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/greenvillejournal.com/2018/10/18/sc-scores-drop-on-act-test-officials-point-to-technical-problem-from-2017/amp/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another article.

South Carolina's scores went down significantly when they required every student to take the ACT instead of just the college bound students:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/greenvillejournal.com/2018/10/18/sc-scores-drop-on-act-test-officials-point-to-technical-problem-from-2017/amp/