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Oregon's African American and Native American graduates in the class of 2015 showed record-high levels of college readiness on the ACT test, taken by 38 percent of Oregon's graduating class.
(Thomas Boyd / The Oregonian)
Oregon's graduating seniors of almost every race and ethnicity, particularly African Americans and Native Americans, scored better on one important test of college readiness than the class before them.
ACT test results released Wednesday show Oregon still has a long way to go, with only 47 percent of students demonstrating they are likely to pass college algebra and 51 percent likely to pass a first-year college history class.
But the modest-or-better improvements for black, Native American, white and Latino students were an encouraging sign in a state where education outcomes have been largely stagnant.
"For the past five years, Oregon teachers have been implementing higher standards designed to better prepare students for life after high school," Salam Noor, Oregon's new state schools chief, said in an email to The Oregonian/OregonLive. "These results indicate that their hard work is paying off with improved outcomes for some of our most historically underserved students."
Small overall gains, larger underlying improvement
Overall, 31 percent of Oregon ACT-takers in the class of 2015 showed they were ready for college across all subjects. That was essentially the same as for the previous two graduating classes.
But the lack of change in the aggregate results masked improvements by both minority and white students.
That's because white students, who score higher on average than students from most other backgrounds, are making up a smaller share of ACT-takers each year: 56 percent in the class of 2015, down 5 percentage points from the class of 2013. The Latino share of test-takers grew during the same period, from 14 percent to 17 percent.
Getting more students from all backgrounds prepared for college is one key to Oregon's drive to get 80 percent of its young adults to earn four-year college degrees or other post-secondary credentials. Currently, fewer than half of young Oregonians hit that mark.
Students who arrive at college without adequate reading, writing or math skills must pay to take non-credit remedial courses. Due to the added expense and added time, those students pile up debt yet are unlikely to earn any degree or credential.
A recent study that tracked 100,000 recent Oregon high school graduates who went straight to community college found 75 percent needed remedial coursework once they arrived.
The study's main takeaway, said author Michelle Hodara, is that Oregon high schools can and should do a better job of preparing students academically for college.
More Oregon grads college-ready in reading than math
Across Oregon, 14,200 students, or 38 percent of the class of 2015, took the ACT. That included nearly all students in Portland Public Schools, Beaverton, Sherwood and Tigard-Tualatin, where nearly all juniors take the ACT for free on a school day.
The ACT covers reading, English, math and science.
Researchers at ACT follow up to see how a large sample of test-takers go on to perform in freshman college history, writing, algebra and biology classes.
They use that to determine a "college ready" ACT score on each test section that indicates the student has a 50 percent chance of getting a B or better -- and a 75 percent of a C or better -- in each college course.
Using that definition, ACT officials found that 67 percent of Oregon test-takers were adequately prepared in English; 51 percent in reading; 47 percent in math; and 43 percent in science.
Those results tied or beat previous readiness figures, except in math, where 50 percent of ACT takers in the class of 2013 tested college ready.
Wide gaps between different groups remain, however. Slightly more than half of white and Asian ACT-takers were college-ready in at least three subjects; among African-Americans and Latinos, slightly fewer than 20 percent were.
ACT officials say taking a complete set of college-prep courses is essential. They say all students should take four years of English and at least three years each of math, science and social studies. The math should consist of at least three years beyond Algebra I, they say.
-- Betsy Hammond
@chalkup