Percentage of ACT test-taking population meeting college readiness benchmark scores, by subject: Academic years 1996–97 through 2009

NCES 2012-026
December 2011

Youth Indicators 2011
America’s Youth: Transitions to Adulthood

Figure 16.

Percentage of ACT test-taking population meeting college readiness benchmark scores, by subject: Academic years 1996–97 through 2009–10

NOTE: College readiness benchmark scores are based on the actual performance of approximately 90,000 college students from a nationally representative sample of 98 institutions and represent the level of achievement required for students to have a 50 percent chance of obtaining a B or higher or about a 75 percent chance of obtaining a C or higher in corresponding credit-bearing first-year college courses. These college courses include English Composition, College Algebra, an introductory social science course, and Biology. The Benchmarks are median course placement values for these institutions and as such represent a typical set of expectations. The benchmark scores, out of a total possible score of 36, are 18 for English, 21 for Reading, 22 for Mathematics, and 24 for Science. Estimates are based on all students who took the ACT assessment during their sophomore, junior, or senior year and who graduated from high school in the spring of the respective year shown. Beginning in 2001–02, some states mandated participation in ACT testing for all high school seniors. Prior to that year, the test would have been taken primarily by those students who planned on attending college.
SOURCE: American College Testing Program, ACT National Scores Report, 1996–2010.