The South Carolina Department of Education recently released public school results for the ACT and WorkKeys, assessments taken by high school students in the spring of last school year.
Now in the second year of administration, South Carolina public school students showed growth on both state assessments.
“While the results of these assessments are just two measures of our students’ preparedness for college and careers, I am pleased that our state has shown gains across the board,” said State Superintendent Molly Spearman. “We must continue to ensure that our students take the necessary coursework needed to perform well on these assessments and that our schools provide the preparation tools to help students be successful.”
All 11th grade students in the spring of 2016 took both The ACT and ACT WorkKeys assessments. The ACT is a curriculum-based achievement test that measures the skills taught in schools and deemed important for success in first-year college courses. ACT WorkKeys is a workplace skills assessment that identifies how prepared students are for available jobs and careers. Both tests were administered to all 11th graders for the first time in 2015.
Statewide, 50,076 students took the WorkKeys assessment. 65.1% of students earned Silver or higher, a 3% increase from last year. Scoring Silver indicates that students have the skills necessary for 67% of the jobs in ACT’s jobs database.
Results for The ACT showed the percentage of students meeting the ACT Readiness Benchmark increased in English, Mathematics, Reading, and Science, when compared to 2015 results. Average scale scores also increased in these four subjects, as well as in the overall Composite score, which increased from 17.9 in 2015 to 18.2 this year.
ACT research shows that students who meet the ACT College Readiness Benchmarks are more likely to persist in college and earn a degree than those who don’t. The benchmarks specify the minimum score students must earn on each of the four ACT subject tests to have about a 75
percent chance of earning a grade of C or higher and a 50 percent chance of earning a B or higher in a typical credit-bearing first-year college course in that subject area.
A total of 280 students achieved a maximum scale score of 36 on one or more of the ACT subject tests. Eleven students scored high enough in every subject to earn a score of 36 on the composite scale, as well. These students along with those that scored Platinum on WorkKeys will be honored by Superintendent Spearman.