Isle students raise scores on ACT exam for third year

Scores on the ACT college entrance exam ticked up slightly for Hawaii public school graduates for the third year in a row, but most students are not prepared to succeed in college, according to results released late Wednesday.

The state began requiring all public school juniors to take the ACT in 2013 in an effort to assess their college readiness in English, reading, math and science. Since then, the composite score for all subjects has gradually risen to 18 from 17.3, on a 36-point scale.

The results reported Wednesday are for the class of 2017, which took the test last year as juniors.

“The growth that Hawaii graduates have shown in college readiness since the state began administering the ACT to all students in 2013 has been remarkable,” Paul Weeks, ACT senior vice president for client relations, said in a statement that accompanied the score release. “Steady gains in states are not unusual, but we rarely see this type of improvement over such a short period of time.”

Nationally, average scores remained flat, at 21 points, over the same time period. Across the country, 60 percent of students took the test compared to 90 percent in Hawaii. Generally, the broader the population taking the test, the lower the score tends to be.

The Condition of College & Career Readiness 2017 report issued by ACT shows the percentage of students taking the test and how they fared, but does not break down public versus private school scores. The Hawaii Department of Education, however, received scores for local public school students and made those available.

In the national report, scores are highest in states where the test is optional and only college-bound students are likely to take the test. In New Hampshire, which had the highest composite score of 25.5, just 18 percent of graduates took the ACT.

Hawaii’s composite score in that report was 19, with 90 percent of students in the state tested, including public and private schools.

Even when compared to states that require all students to take the test, Hawaii does not fare well. Among the 20 states where more than 90 percent of students took the ACT, Hawaii’s composite score outpaced only South Carolina, Nevada and Mississippi.

The nonprofit testing company also assesses how many students are meeting benchmark scores, which it defines as the minimum score needed for a student to have a 50 percent chance of getting a B or more in the college course. The ACT measures academic achievement as a gauge of college readiness.

Of the 12,232 public and private students in Hawaii who took the test, 47 percent met the benchmark score in English, 33 percent met it in reading, 29 percent in mathematics and 26 percent in science. Altogether, only 17 percent of students met all four benchmarks.

Compared to the previous year, the state improved by 3 percentage points in reading and science, and 1 percentage point in English, but dropped by 1 percentage point in math.

“The ACT provides valuable insight and highlights areas we should focus our efforts and resources in order to help our students compete with their peers on a national level,” said state schools Superintendent Christina Kishimoto. “We will continue to work towards improving our testing portfolio to align with our ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) and strategic plans, and will rely on our students to continue to tell us what we can do to help them achieve their college and career goals.”