Director of Advocacy and Advancement Akil Bello explains that contrary to ACT press releases and the media reports that accepted their narrative, declining ACT scores are explainable by its loss of test takers, particularly in states that had higher average ACT scores.
Bello cautions, “We, the public, need to be wary of simplistic interpretation of complex data. Even if ACT (and SAT) performance wasn’t sucha highly coachable socioeconomically correlative phenomenon, giving the test sooner and getting more data won’t improve K-12 education or college readiness. Investing in quality teaching, curriculum, facilities, after-school activities and the tools to combat poverty will improve academic outcomes.”
Read the entire FairTest analysis at Forbes.com.