In this report, ACT researchers show that “college and career readiness,” at least as defined by the ACT itself, is indeed an internationally competitive standard. (They speak of the level of preparation a student needs in order to succeed in a first-year, credit-bearing course at a two- or four-year institution.) To prove this point, researchers conducted a linking analysis of PISA scores for fifteen-year olds in reading and math and college and career readiness benchmark scores for fifteen-year-old tenth-graders taking ACT’s PLAN test. The purpose was to determine whether the standard of college readiness for U.S. students is competitive with those of other high performing nations. (In other words, if we succeed at getting our average student to college and career readiness, will we then be holding our own with the world’s academic leaders?) They find that the benchmarked scores in both reading and math fell within the average scores of most of the highest performing nations, and thus college and career readiness is in fact an internationally competitive standard. The researchers then unfortunately insinuate that, since the Common Core’s definition of college and career readiness was informed by that of the ACT, and the ACT and Common Core standards have been mapped onto one another, the Common Core standards are also internationally competitive. This conclusion might be true but it’s problematic on several levels: The ACT is attempting to compare assessment frameworks (ACT/PISA) with standards (Common Core); we don’t have tests, much less cut scores, for the Common Core yet; lots of folks (including Fordham) think that PISA leaves a lot to be desired, hence isn’t worthy of benchmarking; and ACT—though well respected in education—clearly has skin in the Common-Core game. Bottom line: this paper appears to be more about advocacy and self-promotion than research.
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Click to listen to commentary on the ACT report from the Education Gadfly Show podcast |
ACT, Inc., “Affirming the Goal: Is College and Career Readiness an Internationally Competitive Standard?” (Iowa City, Iowa: ACT, Inc., 2011).
