State ACT scores fall, stay below national average
Homeschooled students make highest scores in the nation
From, Kentucky Citizen Digest, March/April, 2001

The test scores are in. After almost 10 years and 10 billion dollars invested in the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA), it’s time for Kentuckians to see some positive results.  Right? Well the time may be right, but the scores haven’t done their part — they dropped.

Kentucky’s American College Testing (ACT) scores fell from 20.2 in 1998 to 20.1 this year, both numbers lower than the national average of 21.

68 percent (28,745) of seniors in Kentucky took the ACT, 44 percent (12,694) of whom had completed what have been designated the “core classes” necessary to prepare a student for college. Sixty percent of students across the nation take the recommended core courses. The ACT composite of that 60 percent dropped 0.3 points below the nation’s composite between 1991 and 1999, a decline in agreement with increased freshman remediation rates at the state’s  four-year universities.

Core curriculum classes, according to the ACT, include four years of English and three years each of math, social studies and science. The ACT assessment consists of four sections — English, mathematics, reading, and science reasoning — the subjects covered in the core curriculum. Student performance is measured on a scale of 1 to 36. The majority of colleges require prospective students to take the exam before they can be accepted.

Officials expect the number of students who take the ACT to rise due to the introduction of the Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship program. It awards financial aid to all students who go to college in the state. The higher a student’s grades and ACT score, the more money the student is eligible to receive.

Interestingly, according to a survey on career choices included with the ACT, fewer students who take the ACT are interested in careers like education and technology, where the job market offers the most opportunities. In fact, only 9.5 percent showed an interest in education careers.

Nationally, homeschooled students’ scores told a different story. Their average was 22.7, higher than both the national average and Kentucky’s figures. In fact, 22.7 ties with Rhode Island’s average, higher than any other state in the nation.

“Once again, we can clearly and undeniably tell you that home schooling works,” says Michael Farris, president and founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association in Purcellville, Va.

“We’re doing quite well as a movement,” according to Farris. “We should be rewarded with more freedom and not more regulation.”

Some critics argue that the ACT and the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), also used for college admissions, have actually gotten easier over the years, thereby making it easier for students to make better scores.

However, Trent Anderson, executive director of pre-college and pre-graduate programs for Kaplan Educational Centers, does not agree with that assumption.

“If one were to look at both exams, historically, they’ve actually gotten harder over the years,” Anderson states.

Though homeschooled students’ 1999 scores are higher than the national average, Kentucky’s overall numbers serve as a reminder that the state has further to go in its march toward academic excellence — progress Anderson believes needs to be made across the country.

“As a nation, we still have work to do to ensure college readiness,” Anderson says.
 
 
 
 

Key Family Foundation Contacts: Kent Ostrander, Executive Director Martin Cothran, Senior Associate Policy Analyst