D.C. students continue to lag their peers in Maryland and Virginia and remain mostly unprepared for college courses, figures provided by a national testing service show.
D.C. students’ scores on the annual ACT test have risen slowly over the last five years, but they’re still well below the national average — and the average scores of students in Maryland and Virginia, ACT officials announced Wednesday.
The average composite ACT for a graduating senior in the District was 19.4, below the national average of 21.1. The average Virginian scored nearly two points higher, while the average Marylander scored almost three points higher.
» Maryland: 22.1
» Virginia: 21.9
» Nation: 21.1
» District: 19.4
The ACT and its sister, the SAT, are standardized entrance exams taken by many of the nation’s graduating seniors. Every college and university in the country uses ACT scores as part of its acceptance criteria.
Wednesday’s results won’t bring much cheer to school reformers in the District. ACT officials said D.C. students were testing at remedial levels in every category measured by the test. Fully half were unprepared for college-level English, two-thirds weren’t ready for algebra, three-fifths weren’t ready for social science and nearly four-fifths weren’t ready for biology classrooms. Overall, only 21 percent of D.C. students met benchmark scores in all four categories.
In Maryland, 73 percent tested ready for English, 51 percent for algebra, 59 percent for social science and 34 percent for biology. About 30 percent of Maryland students tested at or above college-level proficiency in all four categories.
In Virginia, 74 percent of graduating seniors were ready for college-level English, 49 percent for alegbra, 59 percent for social science and 33 percent for biology. About 27 percent of Virginia students scored at or above college proficiency in all four categories.
