Stability in Students’ ACT Scores Encourages Officials

Average scores on the ACT college entrance exam held steady in 1991 from the previous year, and test officials hailed the results as a sign that minority students are gaining in academic achievement.

The 1991 average composite score was 20.6, unchanged from 1990. Scores on the four-part exam, the predominant college entrance test in 28 states, mainly in the West and Midwest, have barely moved since 1987, when they averaged 20.8.

The multiple-choice test is scored on a scale of 1 through 36. The average on the ACT, administered by American College Testing in Iowa City, Iowa, was based on the scores of 797,000 students who were graduated from high school last spring.

ACT revised its exam in 1989, and test officials said national averages from 1987 through 1989 were converted to make them comparable to scores on the revised test.

ACT President Richard L. Ferguson said he was encouraged that scores have held up despite steady increases in the numbers of minority test-takers. Minority groups continue to score well below the national average, although their 1991 scores held steady or slightly improved.

Nearly 27% of all test-takers were non-white in 1991, compared with 21% in 1987, a summary report said.

Eighteen percent more black students took the test in 1991 than in 1987, as did 50% more Asian-Pacific Islanders, 47% more Puerto Ricans and Cubans and 37% more Mexican-Americans. But 4% fewer whites took the exam.

“The increasing populations of minority students taking the ACT and the stability of their scores as their numbers increase are welcome trends,” Ferguson said.

He attributed that stability to “increasing numbers of ACT-tested minority students . . . completing a strong program of core coursework in high school.”

Black test-takers completing high school core programs--defined as four years of English and three years each of math, social studies and natural sciences--rose from 31% in 1987 to 45% in 1991.

Among all test-takers, 51% completed core programs in 1991, compared with 38% in 1987.

The ACT report made for more upbeat reading than the release last month of Scholastic Aptitude Test scores. Verbal SAT scores for the class of 1991 sank to an all-time low, and math averages dropped for the first time since 1980. About 1 million students take the rival SAT, which predominates in the remaining 22 states.

The ACT tests English usage and mechanics, math ability and science reasoning, and it includes reading passages in social studies, science, art and literature. It is considered a broader test of academic achievement than the SAT, which covers math and verbal reasoning.