Declining Minnesota ACT scores may be a problem. But even disregarding test numbers, there is a problem in how well our schools are preparing students for college.
This is what I see as a college professor.
ACT is a standardized test taken by high school students and it is used by colleges along with grades as admission criteria. ACT scores have declined nationally in recent years. This newspaper also reported how the most recent scores for the Minnesota class of 2022 are the lowest in at least a decade. The low scores seem not to be the product simply of the pandemic. They began falling dramatically in 2016 and continue to slide.
There are reasons to dismiss the ACT slide. The ACT and its SAT competitor are poor predictors of college performance, at best only telling us a small fraction of what factors affect student success. They are also racially and class biased, with numerous studies pointing to how they discriminate against people of color and the poor. They are partially coachable; families that can pay for a college prep class can improve their children's test scores and access more elite schools.
Tests such as the ACT are part of a self-perpetrating cycle of elitism that stratifies American education along racial and class divisions. For these reasons and others many colleges are abandoning the ACT.
Nonetheless, declining ACT scores portend problems regarding what we teach and do in K-12 and the college-readiness of many of our students.
I write from the perspective of a 30-year-plus college professor who has taught thousands of undergraduate students at four-year public and private schools and also at the community college level. At one time I wanted to be a high school teacher. I regularly visit and teach at public and private high schools across the metro region at the request of teachers. Often the students involved are in advanced placement classes. I see students in the postsecondary enrollment options program (PSEO), and I do teacher training for high school teachers.
What I see and hear is not good.