Wisconsin's top teacher expresses pride in the record amount of students taking the ACT test.
Seventy-percent of our state's 2007 high school grads took the ACT college admissions test during high school, compared to 68% in 2006.
“They represent the highest percentage of students to take the ACT ever in Wisconsin history.”
Wisconsin had more than 46,000 of its 2007 graduates take the ACT. And State Superintendent Elizabeth Burmaster boasts, their average composite score of 22.3 is higher than the seven-year trend of 22.2, and tied with Iowa for second place in the nation.
Burmaster says over the past decade Wisconsin has always placed in the top two in the nation.
“We're very proud of that long record of always being number one or number two and we're especially proud this year that we had more students taking the test.”
Burmaster says the high score speaks well of the students' academic achievement and the support they get from their parents and teachers.
“Parents are the first and most important teachers of their children and we certainly are seeing parents understanding the importance of college readiness. It's more and more apparent that this generation of young people is going to have to have higher education beyond just a high school diploma.”
Burmaster says the students did exceptionally well, but it's important to look for areas to improve, including increasing the number of students of color who take the ACT. Black students represented 11% of Wisconsin's ACT test-takers. Also, students could do better in math, science, technology and engineering.