ACT hints at scale of Common Core challenge

Posted on The Prichard Blog: 07 Dec 2010

When we start assessing students against the Common Core Standards, what kind of results will we see? ACT, Inc., has just offered a set of blunt estimates. Using results from the states where all students participate in the ACT (including Kentucky), the report projects that in first literacy testing of 11th graders:

• 38 percent will meet the new standards in reading.
• 51 percent will meet the new standards in writing.
• 53 percent will meet the new standards for language.

Since the Common Core calls for added focus on informational text and on literacy skills that work for specific fields of study, the report also offered estimated results for 11th grade results in those subjects, estimating that:

• 24 percent will meet the standards for literacy in science
• 41 percent will meet the standards for literacy in social studies.
• 38 percent will meet the standards for informational text.
• 37 percent will meet the standards for literature.

Mathematics is exactly as grim, with 11th grade projections that:

• 34 percent will meet the mathematics standards for number and quantity.*
• 42 percent will meet the mathematics standards for functions.
• 37 percent will meet the mathematics standards for statistics and probability.

The rationale for the Common Core has always been that American schools need to aim higher and American students need to achieve at higher levels. This preliminary study provides a first glimpse of how much work we have ahead.

* The ACT mathematics categories come with short explanations of what's in each subdomain. Number and quantity includes the real number system, quantities, the complex number system, and vector and matrix quantities. Functions includes interpreting functions; linear, quadratic, and exponential models; and trigonometric functions. Statistics and Probability includes interpreting categorical and quantitative data; making inferences and justifying conclusions; conditional probability and the rules of probability; and using probability to make decisions.