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Because more states are making all students take them - even students that are not interested in attending college. OP your state of MI does this - makes all students take the ACT.
I'm from Ohio and when I was in high school only college bound students took the ACT. If every kid at my school took it, we'd have looked like a school of idiots in some ways.
Testing culture is always going to show things looking "worst" and then convince people more test are needed, which will show the same thing. There is no reason for all students in a particular state to take the ACT other than to make the ACT company money.
I do. An example: A kid who knows how to add 27 + 8 in his head and writes down the correct answer loses points because he "didn't show his work." A kid who draws 27 tally marks plus 8 more miscounts the total number of tally marks and writes down the wrong answer. He gets full credit for using the correct "methodology."
I do. An example: A kid who knows how to add 27 + 8 in his head and writes down the correct answer loses points because he "didn't show his work." A kid who draws 27 tally marks plus 8 more miscounts the total number of tally marks and writes down the wrong answer. He gets full credit for using the correct "methodology."
And using this exact example - the kid who did it in his head loses at school but will win on the ACT/SAT, and the kid who spends 2 minutes drawing and counting tallies wins at school but will lose on the ACT/SAT.
Timed, multiple choice exams that test academic rigor don't care about partial credit, good intentions or self esteem. Most correct answers in the shortest amount of time. Period.
Because more states are making all students take them - even students that are not interested in attending college. OP your state of MI does this - makes all students take the ACT.
The ACT doesn't just measure college readiness. It measures work readiness, as well.
Given the ever-declining score results, an increasing number of BOTH college-bound students and those who aren't college-bound are woefully inadequately prepared for either.
The number of students taking the ACT has doubled since 2000. In the past, in many parts of the country, it was taken only by a small number of elite students looking to pad their resumes. Now many more mediocre students take it. Hence the lower averages.
I thought everyone getting an "A" for effort trend was going to make things better... I still remember an article a few years that was celebrated by the liberals... a kid had the CORRECT answer and LOST points... a kid who had the WRONG answer and did not lose ANY points... it was a new earth-breaking learning that the liberals had invented, the whole point was getting CLOSE to the answer but NOT the correct answer... Ever since then, I knew liberal education was to make people more like dumb sheep...
I've shared this previously but the public schools in my town stopped correcting spelling on all papers and they moved to a Pass/Fail model from letter grades - with very few kids failing. I sent my kids to school elsewhere where they still taught phonics, spelling, grammar, and gave letter grades.
But in our area, if you didn't show your work to get to the answer of a math problem, but got the answer right, you got a bigger deduction than if the steps you showed were wrong and you got the wrong answer. The latter did lose points - just not as many.
In the school my kids attended, you got points for showing your work, extra points if the work was correct, and additional points for the right answer. In other words - common sense grading.
And using this exact example - the kid who did it in his head loses at school but will win on the ACT/SAT, and the kid who spends 2 minutes drawing and counting tallies wins at school but will lose on the ACT/SAT.
Timed, multiple choice exams that test academic rigor don't care about partial credit, good intentions or self esteem. Most correct answers in the shortest amount of time. Period.
Why would they win on the ACT when they can use their calculators to take the test?
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Originally Posted by MJJersey
On a somewhat related note, the stupidity spewed by the “media” doesn’t help. I just read an article on the lottery claiming that you should put “statistics on your side” by playing numbers that have won in past.
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Originally Posted by The Dark Enlightenment
The number of students taking the ACT has doubled since 2000. In the past, in many parts of the country, it was taken only by a small number of elite students looking to pad their resumes. Now many more mediocre students take it. Hence the lower averages.
That's exactly what I suspected when I read the article.
If you expand the testing base, to include students who are not college-bound, well yes. You'll get lower scores.
I'm surprised actually that the margin was so very small - on a test with scores ranging 1-36, the average score has decreased a point or two.
I think this is fake news. As far as I know up until about 5 years ago it was take the SAT, be ready for it then by the time I graduated Highschool it was, if you don’t like your SAT score take the ACT, colleges accept that too. Clearly their has been a continued shift to kids preferring the ACT as much as the SAT. This will inevitably tank the numbers as kids who would normally take the ACT, kids trying to get into better than average schools would score high on the ACT and not worry about their average-ish SAT score. Hence we aren’t seeing similar dramatic drops in the SAT testing. So now that everyone is taking the ACT it turns out it wasn’t actually easier it was just the kids willing to go the extra mile taking the test and leading it to have a higher average than the SAT.
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