The ACT and SAT are Powerful Predictors of Student Success at the University Level

The ACT and SAT are powerful predictors of student success at the university level.

                                                                           

These exams assessing readiness for college and university matriculation are structured differently but test the same essential verbal and mathematical skills.  The ACT contains four parts, one each for science reasoning, mathematical reasoning, English skills, and reading.  The SAT consists of seven parts alternately emphasizing verbal and mathematical skills.

 

These exams focus especially on ability to read and perform mathematical tasks at the level that we should be able to expect in students on the cusp of high school graduation, truly prepared for successful university experiences.   Lamentably, though, expectations on the ACT and SAT involve vocabulary sophistication, reading comprehension, and mathematical capability exceeding the skill levels of students who graduate from inadequate institutions of K-12 education in the United States such as those of the Minneapolis Public Schools

 

Even among the 64% of those students in the Minneapolis Public Schools who graduate within four years, unpreparedness for the university experience is the prevailing norm.  This is true even among many students who have received mostly A’s and B’s for their coursework.  Students now receive a bevy of points tallied in grade calculation that are earned for projects, classwork, and homework that may or may not be of truly high caliber.  Many teachers give students take-home exams or numerous chances to retake exams, in a style that does not assess student ability to prepare for tests necessitating the manifestation of knowledge in a timely fashion and at a sophisticated level of mastery.

 

One-third of graduates from the Minneapolis Public Schools require remedial education courses once on university campuses, and many students, especially students of color and those from challenging life circumstances, gain acceptance for university matriculation even when attaining only a 15 or so on the ACT.  This level of performance indicates only a middle school level of skill mastery for reading and mathematics.  Admissions officials stare right at these scores and hope that persistence and diligence in overcoming inadequate K-12 preparation will allow students to be successful. 

 

But many students with low skills and poor K-12 preparation flounder at the university level, yielding high dropout rates, low four-year and even six-year graduate rates, and low grade point averages for many of those students who do slug on through to graduation.  This is consistent with what those scores of 15 on the ACT would predict.

 

A topnotch student at the university level generally has earned an ACT score in the 25 to 36 (the latter indicating perfect score) range.  A score of 18 is the absolute minimum that a student should attain to be considered to have some viability as a university candidate, a score of 21 promises fair assurance of success, and the deeper one moves into the 20s the better are one’s chances of being a successful university student.

 

As with so many other comparable situations, detractors of the ACT and SAT cite student outliers who have overcome insufficient K-12 training and low test scores to become successful students at the university level.  There is no doubt that extraordinary persistence and diligence on the part of a given student can result in such success.  But there is also no doubt that such success is very much more likely for those students who attain a 21 or above on the ACT.

 

And there is also no doubt that our institutions of K-12 public education should be overhauled to ensure that all of our precious children, of all demographic descriptors, receive an education that makes attainment of a 21 or higher on the ACT a reality.  We in the United States have a historical obligation to African American and American Indian students;  students of immigrant parents;  and students of low income who typically find themselves in our urban schools of public education---  to whom we have never imparted anything remotely like an education of excellence.  These students should not have to depend on extraordinary diligence and persistence, at a level not expected for students of the middle and wealthy classes, to experience university levels of success.

 

The ACT and SAT are powerful predictors of student success at the university level .

 

We should work to ensure that every student in our K-12 institutions of public education is on the favorable side of those predictions.