However, 100% of high school students in Nevada take the ACT, while in New Hampshire, the figure is just 18%. Mean ACT scores at the state level show significant differences in overall performance, ranging from a low of 17.8 (the average in Nevada) to a high of 25.5 (New Hampshire). The statistics show that 81% of students who met all three underserved criteria achieved either zero or one ACT College Readiness Benchmarks, compared to 32% of students to whom no underserved criteria applied (68% of non-underserved test-takers met at least two ACT benchmarks). ACT has also examined the impact of "underserved criteria" on testing performance (these criteria include low-income households, low levels of family education, and minority status). Among Asian American test-takers, 70% meet the benchmark in Math and 58% in science, compared to respective rates of 26% and 22% for Hispanic students. White test-takers achieve the ACT English and Reading benchmarks at rates of 74% and 58% respectively, while for African Americans, the numbers are 33% (English benchmark) and 20% (Reading benchmark). ACT data show that white and Asian American students meet the ACT College Readiness Benchmarks much more frequently than other groups. In the final analysis, both sides are probably at least partially correct, and postsecondary institutions benefit from as much relevant information about their applicants as possible.īias in standardized testing is a well-documented issue. ACT nonetheless claims that test scores have "incremental usefulness beyond high school GPA," and in "situations involving high selectivity and high academic performance," test scores are more accurate than high school GPA in predicting grades. ACT has admitted that this type of research does appear to show that high school GPA more accurately predicts college GPA than ACT scores. The researcher concluded that while both high school GPA and ACT scores were linked to college GPA, high school grades were a more reliable predictor of performance in college courses (correlation coefficient of 0.639 versus 0.383 for ACT scores). A 2015 study conducted at the Northwest Missouri State University, for instance, used 200 randomly selected students to examine correlations between high school grades, ACT scores, and college grades. Independent researchers have examined how well ACT scores predict college grades.
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