ACT College Admission Test Scores Drop To 30-Year Low As Effects Of Covid-Era Online Learning Play Out

Topline

High school students’ ACT college admission test scores fell to a three-decade low in 2022, according to a new report released Wednesday, falling for the fifth straight year as educators grapple with ongoing learning loss made worse by remote classes during the Covid-19 pandemic.

High school students’ ACT scores dropped to their lowest levels since 1991, according to new data … [+] released Wednesday.

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Key Facts

Students in the graduating high school class of 2022 averaged a score of 19.8 out of 36, the lowest score since 1991 on the admissions test, which colleges use to gauge students’ English, reading, math and science skills.

The average score is down from 20.3 in 2021, and 20.8 in 2018, which were down from a recent high of 21.2 in 2007 (SAT college admission test scores have also dropped slightly from 981 in 2007 to 927 in 2021).

Some 32% of 2022 graduates who took the test passed three out of four benchmarks—indicating whether they have a 50% chance of earning a B or higher in English, reading, math and science—down from 36% of students last year and 38% in 2018.

From 2018 to 2022, the percentage of students who passed the benchmark in the English section dropped from 60% to 53%, while students who passed the math benchmark fell from 40% to 31%.

Only 22% of the students met the benchmark in all four categories, down from 27% in 2018.

ACT CEO Janet Godwin said the decline can’t be blamed exclusively by learning disruptions from online learning and missed classes when schools were shuttered during the Covid-19 pandemic, but by “longtime systemic failures” that were “exacerbated by the pandemic.”

Crucial Quote

“The magnitude of the declines this year is particularly alarming, as we see rapidly growing numbers of seniors leaving high school without meeting the college-readiness benchmark in any of the subjects we measure,” Godwin said in a press release,

Key Background

Recent studies have linked online learning during the pandemic—when teachers were forced to completely pivot from in-person classes to lessons online—to disruptions in students’ math and reading comprehension. During that time, students were shown to have connected less with their teachers and classmates, and become distracted more easily while at home. The high school class of 2022 dealt with online learning for more than half of their time in high school, starting in March, 2020. Students who switched to online lessons from in-person classes for just a month missed the equivalent of seven to 10 weeks of math, Harvard University Center for Education Policy Research director Thomas Kane told NPR. The losses held true for younger students, as well. A National Assessment of Educational Progress report released last month found 9-year-olds’ reading levels suffered the biggest fall since 1990, while math scores had their biggest drop ever.

Tangent

Disparities between racial groups also increased over that pandemic, with Black students’ math scores falling 13 points, compared to white students’ scores falling five points, according to the Nation’s Report Card. Analysts at McKinsey & Company attribute the difference between races to variation in access to education, with Black and Hispanic students less likely to have access to internet or live interaction with teachers, despite being more likely to remain in remote classrooms.

Surprising Fact

Washington D.C. students had the highest ACT score (26.9), followed by California and Massachusetts (26.5), while the lowest scores were recorded in Nevada (17.3) and Mississippi (17.8).

Big Number

1.3 million. That’s how many students in the class of 2022 took the ACT test, or roughly 36% of graduating high school seniors, according to the report.