Tuesday, April 11, 2017

So More Students Are Taking the ACT but Aren't College Ready. What gives?

Many people are wondering why in the world students aren't getting the hang of ACT skills so they can finally get ready for college.

But is the problem really the test, or is it the students, or even the preparation?

The truth is that it was US students' lack of readiness for college that gave the ACT Corporation the edge as they looked for a way to take out College Board and the SAT.

Through ACT Corp's agressive salesmanship and marketing, they captured school after school after school, convincing high schools that not only should students be taking the ACT to qualify to get into college.  Their high schools students also needed to "pass" the ACT to even get out of highschool.

But, unfortunately, as the Wall Street Journal points out, all the testing the ACT people have administered really doesn't seem to be helping students much.

In fact, students scores and abilities seem to be deteriorating even more.  And why shouldn't they? The typical high school is more concerned about sports and social issues than solid academics. This is why most high school graduates will fail a test that was given in the 1950s, or even the 1850s that deal with basic grammar and history.



What we need to do as a country is the same thing that the great societies did to be teachers of the world. It wasn't by celebrating this day or that day for a specific race or gender group. It was by getting down the basics, and doing it well:  math, grammar, philopsophy. In short, critical thinking.



In truth, I think this is a big reason why my work as a ACT tutor has lead to as much as 15 point increase on the ACT, and many scores to the top 1%. Let's not cheat our students into doing their best. Let's let them learn the classics, and teach them to think. Life is more than feelings. It's about thinking carefully to make good decisions.