Maryland students’ test scores on the ACT college entrance exam are better than the national average, but only 29 percent of those high school graduates are prepared for college, according to data released Wednesday.
The ACT measures academic achievement in areas of English, math, science and reading that are expected to be essential to first-year college work. With more students taking the test, 29 percent of the state’s graduating high school seniors met all benchmarks, a prediction that they will earn a C or higher in those critical subjects their first year of college.
That percentage is a 2 percent step up from last year and an 8 percent jump from 2004, when the state’s percent was equal with the national average.
Meanwhile, the national percentage of students ready for college has remained flat, according to the test; 21 percent reached the benchmarks in 2004 and 22 percent did this year.
“We still have far too many high school graduates who are not ready for college-level work,” said Richard Ferguson, ACT’s chief executive officer. “There is much work left to be done to ensure that all students graduate from high school with the skills they need to succeed at the next level.”
Students did best in English and algebra. In Maryland, 72 percent of graduating test-takers met the benchmarks in English, and 51 percent hit the benchmark in algebra.
The test was created by an Iowa-based board and is becoming increasingly popular in the country and Maryland. All graduates in three states — Michigan, Illinois and Colorado — took the test this year, and in Maryland, the percentage of graduating high schoolers taking it has steadily increased to about 16 percent this year, or nearly 11,000 students.
Still, the SAT dominates. Most colleges and universities accept either the SAT or ACT from students who are applying for admission, but compared with Maryland seniors taking the ACT, about three times more — 33,400 — last year took the SAT.
This year’s SAT results will be released later this summer.
