They Don't Know How To ACT?

According the a post in The Wall Street Journal, "the average score on the ACT dropped to a 30-year low, indicating fewer high-school seniors are ready for college, the organization behind the college admissions test said."

The article states that "test takers had an average score of 19.5 out of 36 in 2023, down 0.3 point from 2022, according to ACT. It is the sixth consecutive year of declines, ACT said, and the second straight year the average score dropped below 20 since 1991."

"The test, along with the SAT, has long been used by colleges and universities to help decide whether to accept applicants. Students submit the scores with their applications.

“The hard truth is that we are not doing enough to ensure that graduates are truly ready for postsecondary success in college and career,” said Janet Godwin, chief executive of ACT."

Officials at ACT say "the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated unpreparedness for college. Students in the class of 2023 were in their first year of high school during the start of the pandemic, when schools nationwide switched to online learning."

"Schools and education advocates have raised concerns about the use of standardized testing, saying the income of a student’s family could influence their test scores. Some colleges, including Ivy League schools, stopped taking standardized tests during the pandemic and have continued to make them optional. Harvard University, for example, said applicants don’t have to submit ACT or SAT scores through 2026."

"About 1.4 million high school seniors took the ACT in 2023, up slightly from the year before, but still down from the more than two million who took it in 2017, according to ACT. Scores for the class of 2023 were down across all the subjects its test covers, ACT said. They fell 0.3 point for math, reading and science. They were down 0.4 point for English."

(https://wallstreetjournal-ny.newsmemory.com/?publink=194957141_134ad88)