Each year Louisiana’s high school students take the ACT, a college readiness assessment, that determines whether they’re ready for college-level classes in math, science, reading and English.
As The Shreveport Times reports, state education officials say students are more prepared for college overall than ever before—based on Louisiana’s 19.4 average composite score—but data provided by ACT indicates the state’s students are not academically ready to make the transition from high school to higher education based on the group’s own benchmarks in the four subject areas.
State Education Superintendent John White says poor performance in math, in particular, is concerning.
“Our kids are slowly getting further and further behind,” he says. “You have very low numbers in mathematics because kids are not mastering higher level skills very early on.”
Of 49,082 students required to take the assessment in 2015, just 16% reached all four subject area benchmarks, the main indicators for success in a college classroom, according to ACT. All graduating Louisiana students take the test since legislation passed in 2013 requires them to do so.
ACT spokesman Ted Colby says the test’s benchmarks for college success measure whether a student will be able to pass a college-level course with a C or better.
More than half of Louisiana’s graduating students tested reached the benchmark for English, but only 27% of students reached benchmarks in math and science, and 35% reached the benchmark for reading.
Louisiana’s 2015 performance in math is 16% below the national average.
White says instruction and curriculums must be adjusted for the state to make progress.
The Department of Education has plans, he says, to address teaching methods and to implement a stronger math curriculum.
