ERIC ED573955: The Condition of College & Career Readiness 2016: Virginia Key Findings

2016·0.69 MB·English

by  ERIC

The Condition The Condition of College
of College and
& Career Readiness 2016
Career Readiness
This report looks at the progress
of the 2016 ACT®-tested Virginia Key Findings
graduating class relative to
college and career readiness.
This year’s report shows that Performance
64% of students in the 2016 US • A total of 25,866 students in the 2016 Virginia graduating class took the ACT (compared to
graduating class took the ACT 25,038 in 2015).
test, up from 59% in 2015 and ~ Asian student participation on the ACT increased from 5.7% in 2012 to 7.4% in 2016.
49% in 2011. The increased ~ African American students comprised 17% (4,329) of the ACT-tested population, compared
number of test takers over the to 16% (4,011) in 2015. Their ACT Composite score (18.4) outpaced their national
past several years enhances the counterparts’ Composite score (17.0).
breadth and depth of the data ~ Hispanic/Latino students made up 7% (1,935) of the ACT-tested population, compared to
pool, providing a comprehensive 8% (1,937) in 2015. However, their ACT Composite score (22.4) also exceeded their
picture of the current graduating national counterparts’ Composite score (18.7).
class in the context of college ~ White students comprised 57% (14,629) of the ACT-tested population, comparable to 57%
readiness, as well as offering a (14,379) in 2015. Their ACT Composite score (24.4) rose while their national counterparts’
glimpse at the emerging Composite score (22.2) dropped.
educational pipeline. • Virginia’s 2016 ACT Composite increased 0.2 to 23.3, while the national Composite score
As a research-based nonprofit declined from 21.1 to 20.8.
organization, ACT is committed to • Virginia’s ACT English, mathematics, reading, and science scores increased.
providing information and • ACT College Readiness Benchmarks
solutions to support the following: ~ The lower percentages of Benchmark attainment may point to an opportunity for access
• Holistic view of readiness. and exposure for underserved students. For instance, 55.5% of African American students
The 2014 ACT report, take their first and only test as a senior.
Broadening the Definition of ~ English—78% of Virginia 2016 graduates are ready for college English composition.
College and Career ~ Mathematics—59% of Virginia 2016 graduates are ready for college algebra.
Readiness: A Holistic ~ Reading—63% of Virginia 2016 graduates are ready for college social sciences.
Approach, shows academic ~ Science—53% of Virginia 2016 graduates are ready for college biology.
readiness is only one of four
STEM
critical domains in determining
an individual’s readiness for • Virginia students are encouraged to take more rigorous courses. However, some report taking
success in college and career. the minimum math and science courses.
Cross-cutting capabilities, ~ 87% of Virginia test-takers are taking more than three years of math compared to 71%
behavioral skills, and the nationally.
ability to navigate future ~ 5% of Virginia students report taking fewer than three years of natural science courses. Their
pathways are also important average ACT Science score is 18.1, 4.9 points below the ACT science Benchmark of 23.
factors to measure and ~ 65% of Virginia students reported taking high school science courses that include biology,
address. Together, these chemistry, and physics. Their average ACT science score ranges between a 24.1 and 26.2,
elements define a clear exceeding the ACT science Benchmark of 23.
picture of student readiness • STEM Benchmark Attainment: 34% of the 2016 Virginia ACT-tested graduating class met the
ACT STEM Benchmark—14% higher than the national average—and the average score was
for postsecondary education.
2.3 points higher than the national average.
• Providing meaningful data
for better decisions. ACT is Career Readiness
focused on providing better
• This year, for the first time, ACT has provided an indicator of career readiness based on ACT
data to students, parents,
composite scores. Table 3.4 in the state ACT Profile Report details how ACT-tested Virginia
schools, districts, and states
graduates are progressing toward the ACT National Career Readiness Certificate™ (ACT
so that all can make more
NCRC®).
informed decisions to improve
• Progress toward career readiness is based on research linking ACT Composite scores to ACT
outcomes. We accomplish this
NCRC levels. The ACT Composite cut score for each ACT NCRC level corresponds to a 50%
goal by taking a holistic view
chance of obtaining that level. If a student’s ACT Composite score surpassed the cut score for
and using consistent and
an ACT NCRC level, they are categorized as making progress towards the next higher ACT
reliable historical information
NCRC level. Attainment of ACT NCRC levels indicates workplace employability skills that are
so that individuals and
critical to job success.
institutions have a better
• In Virginia, 83% of ACT tested graduates are considered making progress towards at least a
context to make critical
gold ACT NCRC level. This compares to 68% nationally.
decisions about the journey
they have undertaken.
www.act.org/research
© 2016 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 6319
Virginia The Condition of College & Career Readiness
Behaviors that Impact Access and Pipeline
Opportunity
• Only 4% of ACT-tested Virginia graduates expressed an interest
• Testing patterns in pursuing education as a major or career. Those students
earned an average ACT Composite score of 21.4, lower than
~ 66.6% of Virginia graduates took the ACT only once—
the state average of 23.3. In comparison, 16% expressed an
substantially higher than the national average of 55%.
interest in Health Sciences and Technologies.
~ 37.1% of white students and 43.9% of Hispanic/Latino
students took their first and only test as a senior. • Aspirations matter. Students in Virginia who aspire to a higher
• Below are the top five colleges and universities to which 2016 level of postsecondary education achieve higher ACT
Composite scores:
Virginia (ACT-tested) graduates sent their scores:
1. Virginia Tech ~ Graduates who aspire to a graduate degree earn an average
2. James Madison University Composite score of 24.6.
3. University of Virginia ~ Graduates who aspire to a bachelor’s degree earn an
average Composite score of 21.4.
4. Virginia Commonwealth University
~ Graduates who aspire to an associate’s degree earn an
5. George Mason University
average Composite score of 16.7.
• ACT’s Educational Opportunity Service (EOS) is a free service
that allows students to learn about educational, scholarship, ACT Footprint
career, and financial aid opportunities from colleges, universities,
ACT Aspire® ACT Aspire ACT ACT ACT
financial aid and scholarship agencies, and other organizations Summative Periodic Engage® QualityCore® PreACT™ WorkKeys®
that offer educational programs. The national rate for opting into 3,975 536 494 – 104* 41,207
this service is 73.1%. For Virginia, the EOS opt-in rate was * PreACT refers to preorders for FY17.
65.9%.
These are the number of each of these assessments delivered in the
• The “Get Your Name is the Game” campaign provides students state and not reflective of the 2016 ACT-tested graduating class.
an opportunity to find colleges that would be a good fit and
2016 ACT College and Career
helps students who were not thinking about postsecondary
education to realize that college is a possibility. Virginia colleges Readiness Campaign honorees
and universities have accessed 109,934 student names using
• Patrick Henry Community College
this initiative.
• John Champe High School
• Fee Waiver Usage
• Ahmed Woodson, Thomas Jefferson High School
~ In Virginia, there were 5,389 fee waivers issued and 3,778 of
those were used. This equates to a 70.1% usage rate. The
national rate was 74.5%.
~ 58.6%, or 944, of unused fee waivers were issued to African
American students.
~ ACT provides students fee waivers to provide more access
and opportunity for students.
Your State College and Career Readiness
Attainment, Participation, and Opportunity
Virginia
Percent of 2016 ACT-Tested High School Graduates Meeting Percent of 2012–2016 ACT-Tested High School Graduates
ACT College Readiness Benchmarks by Subject Meeting ACT College Readiness Benchmarks*
100 100
80 78 80 76 76 76 77 78
61 63 59 63 57 58 61 63
Percent 4600 44 41 53 36 43 Percent 4600 5368 57 47 57 49 58 53 5593
41 43
26 37 38
33
20 20
0 0
English Reading Mathematics Science All Four 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Subjects
Virginia Nation English Reading Mathematics Science All Four Subjects
Note: Percents in this report may not sum to 100% due to rounding. * ACT College Readiness Benchmarks in reading and science were revised in 2013.
Student Student Condition Data Interest Trends: 2012–2016, State vs. Nation
Data Trends Outcome Cohort 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Virginia 25% 26% 28% 30% 31%
Percent Tested
• Between 2012 and Nation 52% 54% 57% 59% 64%
2016, the number of Virginia 21,647 22,165 22,977 25,038 25,866
N Tested
students taking the Nation 1,666,017 1,799,243 1,845,787 1,924,436 2,090,342
ACT in Virginia Average English Virginia 22.1 22.3 22.4 22.8 22.9
increased by 19.5%. Score Nation 20.5 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.1
Average Reading Virginia 22.7 23.1 23.4 23.6 24
Score Nation 21.3 21.1 21.3 21.4 21.3
Average Mathematics Virginia 22.3 22.5 22.7 22.8 22.9
Score Nation 21.1 20.9 20.9 20.8 20.6
Average Science Virginia 21.9 22.2 22.4 22.8 23.1
Score Nation 20.9 20.7 20.8 20.9 20.8
Average Composite Virginia 22.4 22.6 22.8 23.1 23.3
Score Nation 21.1 20.9 21 21 20.8
www.act.org/research
© 2016 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. 6319
Virginia Your State College and Career Readiness Attainment, Participation, and Opportunity
Percent of 2016 ACT-Tested High School Graduates by Trends in Percent of ACT-Tested High School Graduates by
ACT College Readiness Benchmark Attainment and Subject Number of ACT College Readiness Benchmarks (CRBs) Attained
100 100
15
26
80 8 34 33 80
11
ent 60 8 14 Bbye l3o+w PBoeinnctsh mark ercent 60
erc Within 2 Points P 40
P 40 78 of Benchmark
63 59 Met Benchmark 20
53
20
0
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
0 Graduation Year
English Reading Mathematics Science Virginia Students Attaining 0 CRBs Virginia Students Attaining 3 or 4 CRBs
National Students Attaining 0 CRBs National Students Attaining 3 or 4 CRBs
Percent of 2012–2016 ACT-Tested High School Graduates by Percent of 2012–2016 ACT-Tested High School Graduates
Race/Ethnicity Meeting Three or More Benchmarks by Race/Ethnicity
100 100
19 18 17 16 17
80 6 6 7 7 7 80 67 71 67 73 75
Percent 4600 568 578 577 587 577 HPAAAafmsisriciapecifinaraic nncA ia IcAmsn lma eInnreiddcrieiacarnan n Percent 4600 6601 4426 4644 956 2 473 9 6573 494 06 641 50 666056
White
Two or More Races 20
20 No Response 15 15 17 20 19
0
4 4 5 5 5 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
6 6 6 6 6
0
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 African American Asian Hispanic Pacific White
American Indian American Islander
Note: Values less than 0.5% will not appear.
Percent of 2016 ACT-Tested High School Graduates by
Educational Aspirations
100
There is good news in that 90% of Virginia’s 2016 ACT-
tested graduates aspired to postsecondary education.
80
Interestingly enough, 88% of Virginia’s 2015 ACT-tested
graduating class aspired to enroll in postsecondary
nt 60 52
ce education, compared to 85% who actually did enroll. If we
er
P 40 37 fully closed the aspirational gap, an additional 760 of the
2015 ACT-tested graduates from Virginia would have
20 enrolled in postsecondary education.
10
1
0
Graduate/ Bachelor’s Associate’s/ Other/No
Professional Degree Voc-tech Degree Response
Degree
What You Need to Know
At ACT, we are inspired every day to make a positive difference. Here are a few ways we are making an
impact each day in the lives of students, teachers, education, policy makers, and workforce leaders.
• Enhancements to ACT Score Reports starting in • New Performance Level Descriptors coming in August 2016
September 2016 • More than 5 million ACT Aspire online assessments
• Introduction of ACT Kaplan Online Prep Live in administered to US students since January 2016, a major
September 2016 milestone for the program and up by more than 130%
• New Score Reports compared to the previous year
• New Score Reports
• Affordable cost—$12 per student tested for schools, districts,
and states
• Helps schools face the challenge of preparing students for
• Flexible administration—Schools, districts, and/or states may
success after high school. Read the latest white paper,
administer on any date between September 1, 2016 and Identifying Skills to Succeed in School, at Work, and in the
June 1, 2017 “Real World.”
• Structured test environment—Similar to what the student will • New Score Reports
experience when taking the ACT test
• Updated versions of the ACT National Career Readiness
Certificate (ACT NCRC) assessments and credential
• A virtual classroom experience that delivers all the benefits of coming in summer 2017
ACT Online Prep, plus an interactive teaching experience • Fully updated ACT WorkKeys curriculum and test prep
• Live learning experiences available at no cost to students who available in summer 2017 to support the updated
register for the ACT using a fee waiver ACT NCRC assessments
• Recorded sessions available on demand to provide maximum • Will include a new test delivery platform that will introduce
flexibility to students features and functionality important to ACT WorkKeys
customers
www.act.org/condition2016
Virginia The Condition of College & Career Readiness
Key ACT Research Recommendations
The Condition of 1. Create an assessment model that measures a variety of skill domains and
STEM 2016— competencies required for college and career success.
Releasing Historically, college and career readiness assessments have focused only on
November 2016 academic skills. ACT research has clearly established areas of competency
This report provides important for college and career readiness success. While our research shows
Tohf eS TCEoMnd 2it0io16n national and state that ACT solutions independently measure key components of college AND
National
data about the 2016 career readiness, we and others have begun to realize that no single solution can
graduating class in measure the full breadth of this readiness, nor should it. Simply put, the ACT alone
the context of STEM-related fields is not enough to measure the full breadth of career readiness. A more holistic
(Science, Technology, Engineering, assessment model, incorporating multiple domains and specific skills associated
Mathematics) to determine student interest with career clusters or occupations, will typically be most appropriate for
levels in specific STEM fields and, more describing and evaluating student readiness for college and career.
importantly, readiness in math and science
2. Optimize opportunities to influence awareness and engagement of
of those interested in STEM careers.
underserved learners.
College Choice Initiatives designed to aid underserved learners are only as effective as they are
Report 2015 visible. We must inform advocates and ALL underserved learners about the
This report follows the available and effective programs designed for this purpose. For example, in the
ACT-tested high 2015–2016 academic year, approximately 730,000 students registered to take
school graduating the ACT using fee waivers valued at more than $36 million. Yet, not all eligible
College Choice
Report 2015 class of 2015, students took advantage of this offer. Similarly, institutions must use data to
National
focusing on specific inform intervention strategies if they are going to help underserved students be
testing behaviors that prepared for postsecondary success.
may expand college opportunities available
3. Take the guesswork out of STEM.
to students. This is an important topic for
It is critically important to align STEM initiatives to capitalize on performance,
enrollment managers and admissions
measured interest, and expressed interest. Essential to this effort is expanding
officers to consider, as students’
and nurturing interest in STEM, which will impact the emerging pipeline of STEM
participation in these testing behaviors
majors, teachers, and workers. This requires capturing a wider range of students
have implications for colleges’ chances to
and employing concrete measures to inform intervention and programming. To do
recruit, advise, and place these prospective
so, states and districts must look for partnering opportunities from K–12 to
students.
postsecondary education to the workplace.
4. Focus on the implementation of fewer, higher, clearer, standards in K–12
classrooms to raise the bar for all students.
No matter the adopted standards, proper implementation must focus on the most
critical component for increasing readiness—effective, high-quality teaching. This
requires investment in postsecondary teaching programs, professional
development, and state-level collaboration among K–12 and higher education.
5. Don’t over test students.
When states, schools, and districts build an assessment strategy that recognizes
the limits and promise of test scores, they will reduce the likelihood of over
testing. Used ethically and appropriately, assessments can inform decisions at
individual and institutional levels. Misunderstood, misused, or abused,
assessments cause confusion, can be perceived as punitive, or result in ill-
conceived strategies. To quote ACT founder E.F. Lindquist, “Assessment is
valuable to the extent it bridges teaching and learning.”
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