Tenn. does poorly on ACT; Study: Most students not prepared for college
BYLINE: Alex Doniach doniach@commercialappeal.com
Gov. Phil Bredesen has long condemned poor achievement and college preparation in Tennessee high schools, and now new findings validate his complaints.
A study released last week by the ACT, the organization that produces the standardized test Tennessee students are expected to take, found that nationwide only a quarter of high school students on a college-bound track are actually prepared to tackle college-bound courses.
The study suggests performance is even worse in Tennessee.
"I'm getting tired of hearing from the college presidents that the people can't do the freshman work, even people who get scholarships," Bredesen said in a recent visit to Memphis.
The governor made it clear he's fed up with the low levels of achievement in Tennessee high schools and the high numbers of students who graduate poorly prepared for college - problems that cost the state millions of dollars each year.
The ACT study, "Rigor at Risk: Reaffirming Quality in the High School Core Curriculum," analyzed more than a million students nationwide, including a few thousand from Tennessee high schools.
Nationwide, it found that only 26 percent of students who took a full set of college-preparatory courses met ACT's benchmarks for college readiness, meaning they would be able to score a C or better in college courses.
Those college-preparatory courses are defined as four years of English and three years of math, science and social studies.
Those benchmarks of college readiness are defined as ACT scores of 18 in English, 22 in math, 21 in reading and 24 in science.
The study didn't measure college readiness by state. However, it did provide state figures for all 2006 graduates who took the ACT - not only those on the college track - and in that measure Tennessee didn't fare well.
Only 17 percent of students in Tennessee - and just three percent of African-Americans here - managed to reach the college-readiness benchmarks.
Bredesen has called on reforms that would close the gap between college readiness and high school education. "When (students) get to school, we need to make sure these people have got the skills it takes," he said.
He added that in some cases, where schools consistently fail to teach their students, state intervention may be necessary.
Seventeen of the 20 failing schools in Tennessee are in Memphis, Bredesen said.
"If the school is not working and the school board is not responding, I feel perfectly free to take it out of that system and turn it over to the University of Memphis or a charter school or something else," he said.
In light of the report, ACT administrators have asked high schools to monitor their students' progress more carefully to match college readiness standards. They've also asked colleges to be more specific about courses students should take to be successful in college.
Bredesen echoed those recommendations.
"Part of that is going to be to just really get working to align what it is that we're doing in the schools with the needs of the freshman classes coming in," he said, adding that sweeping curriculum changes are in the works.
The bottom line is that it costs the state millions to re-teach poorly prepared students once they get to college. In Tennessee, nearly half of all college students and 70 percent of community college students require remedial work, costing the state $25 million annually, according to the Tennessee Board of Regents.
Bredesen urges students who score poorly on the ACT to consider community colleges as viable alternatives to four-year schools.
"I want to depend a lot more on the community college system to help these people over the gap instead of putting these people in four-year schools that are much more expensive for us and where they are much more likely to fail," he said.
At the University of Memphis, nearly 40 percent of students require catchup work in either math or English, according to Thomas Nenon, vice provost for undergraduate programs who oversees the U of M's developmental studies program.
But Nenon said before criticizing school systems, a host of socioeconomic factors should be factored into the equation.
"Some schools have a lot more of a challenge," he said. "It's not a big secret that there's a strong correlation between the academic performance of students and the background at home."
Despite the socioeconomic hurdles faced by diverse school systems like Memphis City Schools, Alfred Hall, chief academic officer at MCS, said more can be done to make sure that learning sinks in.
"Our challenge is to help students make sense of it from their own perspective, then translate their knowledge and demonstrate it on a test like the ACT," he said.
- Alex Doniach: 529-5231