By: Peter Huidekoper, Jr.
When our final ACT results were released last month, there was good news.
Chalkbeat Colorado opened its story with a Well done!
Colorado is ending its run with the ACT college entrance exam on a high note. The state’s overall average composite score last year was a 20.4, the highest it’s been since the state began administering the test to high school juniors in 2001.
Which was true …
| Year | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
| State Average | 20.2 | 20.0 | 20.0 | 19.9 | 20.0 | 20.1 | 20.3 | 20.1 | 20.4 |
… but, once we take a closer look, little good news, especially for our urban high schools.
As an organization, ACT has been more willing to draw conclusions. Its recent report on our state, “The Condition of College and Career Readiness – 2016 – Colorado,” found:
-Only 25% of Colorado students met all four ACT College Readiness Benchmarks.
-Only 49% of white students, 24% of African-American students, and 17% of Hispanic students met three or more benchmarks indicating “a strong likelihood of experiencing success in college.”
Furthermore, ACT’s report shows the significant gaps by race and ethnicity this way:
| Percent of 2016 graduates meeting ACT benchmarks | English | Math | Reading | Science |
| COLORADO – All graduates | 61 | 39 | 42 | 36 |
| African American | 40 | 18 | 23 | 16 |
| Hispanic | 39 | 20 | 23 | 17 |
| Asian | 71 | 62 | 51 | 51 |
| White | 75 | 50 | 54 | 48 |
More problematic, when we see so many low-performing high schools in the metro area continue to perform so poorly on the ACT—please note: for 5 years running—can anyone say we have succeeded in bringing about significant high school reform in Denver and nearby districts?
And look specifically at ACT scores for Montbello, Noel, North, West, and Aurora Central; together they received almost $13 million in federal grants to raise achievement. Can DPS or APS say more students in these buildings are now college ready? (Look too for the “new” schools that emerged after closures.)
21 metro area high schools all (except one) with ACT scores under 17 in 2016:
Schools in blue received*** a total of nearly $13 million in federal turnaround funds between 2010 and 2016
| District | School | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | Change over 5 years |
| Adams County 14 | Adams City High School | 15.6 | 16.2 | 16.1 | 15.9 | 16.6 | +1.0 |
| Aurora Public Schools | Aurora Central H.S. | 14.9 | 15.0 | 15.2 | 15.1 | 15.9 | +1.0 |
| Gateway H.S. | 16.5 | 16.5 | 16.8 | 16.2 | 16.1 | -.4 | |
| Hinkley H.S. | 16.9 | 17.1 | 17.0 | 17.0 | 16.9 | – | |
| Denver Public Schools | Bruce Randolph H.S. (6-12) | 16.0 | 15.2 | 16.4 | 17.1 | 15.8 | -.2 |
| Abraham Lincoln | 15.5 | 15.6 | 16.0 | 14.8 | 16.4 | +.9 | |
| Manual H.S. | 16.1 | 15.7 | 16.1 | 16.2 | 16.3 | +.2 | |
| Martin Luther King Early College | 17.4 | 17.1 | 17.1 | 16.1 | 16.3 | -1.1 | |
| Montbello H.S. | 15.0 | 15.1 | – | ||||
| Collegiate Prep Academy | – | – | 15.6 | 15.2 | 16.7 | (+1.1)* | |
| DCIS at Montbello | – | – | 17.1 | 16.9 | 16.4 | (-.7)* | |
| High Tech Early College | – | 16.9 | 15.6 | 15.1 | 16.3 | (-.6)* | |
| Noel Community Arts School | – | – | 15.6 | 17.2 | |||
| North H. S. | 15.2 | 16.3 | 16.9 | 16.2 | 16.7 | +1.5 | |
| Southwest Early College | 17.3 | 16.1 | 16.4 | 16.7 | 16.9 | -.4 | |
| Venture Prep H.S. | 17.2 | 16.6 | 16.8 | 16.6 | 16.5 | -.7 | |
| West H.S. | 14.9 | 15.0 | 14.7 | – | – | ||
| West Generation Academy | – | – | – | 14.7 | 15.6 | ||
| West Leadership Academy | – | – | – | 15.2 | 15.6 | ||
| DPS subtotal | 16.07 | 16.36 | +.29 | ||||
| Jefferson County | Alameda International H.S. | 16.3 | 16.1 | 16.5 | 16.3 | 16.9 | +.6 |
| Jefferson H.S. | 14.8 | 15.1 | 16.1 | 15.6 | 16 | +1.2 | |
| Sheridan | Sheridan H.S. | 16.7 | 16.4 | 15.9 | 15.5 | 16.3 | -.4 |
| Westminster 50 | Westminster H.S. | 16.3 | 16.1 | 16.2 | 15.9 | 16.4 | +.1 |
| Average | 16.03 | 16.37 | +.34 | ||||
| State Average | 20.0 | 20.1 | 20.3 | 20.1 | 20.4 | ||
| The college readiness benchmark, according to ACT: | 21 | ||||||
*(Change since opening year, which was after 2012) Scores found at CDE’s website.
Finally, and most troubling, the results expose the dubious claim that we “graduate students ready for college.” When a school’s ACT average score is BELOW 17, I assume you can agree that most graduates are not college ready. And yet many of these schools show graduation rates that “look” OK—even above the state average! Then look at the high remediation rates for their graduates who do go on to a Colorado college. Four examples – here. (This updates my 2015 commentary in The Denver Post).
| 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | |||||
| District | School | ACT | # of graduates out of total in 12th grade | Graduation rate | Remediation rate[1] | # who needed remediation out of number of graduates who attended Colorado colleges | # of students enrolled in 12th grade
|
| Adams County 14 | Adams City High School | 16.6 | 267/366 | 73% | 64.10% | 50/78 | 392 |
| Denver Public Schools | Bruce Randolph H.S. (6-12) | 15.8 | 64/81 | 79% | 75% | 15/20 | 90 |
| Abraham Lincoln | 16.4 | 266/344 | 77.3% | 57.83% | 48/83 | 307 | |
| Sheridan | Sheridan H.S. | 16.3 | 64/71 | 90% | 44.68% | 21/47 | 125 |
| State Average | 20.4 | 77.3% | 35.4% | ||||
To see our students “graduate college ready” is a worthy goal. But let’s not pretend our graduation rates tell us anything about the academic skills our seniors need in order to succeed in college.
Colorado’s final ACT results (our juniors shift to the SAT next spring) raise the question: are we really serious about seeing that our students “graduate college ready”? If we are, let’s be honest: we have a long way to go.
These are excerpts from Another View #152 – Final ACT results invite questions about our high schools – and much more. A full copy is available at http://anotherviewphj.blogspot.com/
[1] From Colorado Department of Higher Education’s 2015 LEGISLATIVE REPORT ON REMEDIAL EDUCATION, submitted May 2016, http://highered.colorado.gov/Publications/Reports/Remedial/FY2015/2015_Remedial_relMay2016.pdf