ACT scores creeping up in math, science

ACT scores creeping up in math, science:The results of ACT tests taken by Fort Morgan 11th-graders last school year were up slightly compared to the previous year, according to results released by the Fort Morgan School District.The students who will graduate this spring scored .2 of a point above last year's seniors on the test, which is first taken during the junior year of high school, in both English and math and .1 higher in reading and science.Math was the highest score in this year's ACT results, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Assessment Joy Perry said, indicating that could be seen as a result of the emphasis on math instruction at the high school. Fort Morgan students averaged 17.9 points on the math portion. The state average for math was 20.4.English was lowest-scoring section on average for Fort Morgan students. This was also the subject on which the local students were the furthest behind the state average, with Fort Morgan averaging 16.1 points and the statewide average being 20.1 points.
But Fort Morgan students averaged 17.7 points or reading, compared to the state average of 20.9 points. While up from the previous years, the reading scores seem to be trending down overall, as average scores above 18 points were common for the seven years before that.Science was another area that saw a minor improvement last year after a significant decline in scores. This year, the state average was 20.7 on the science portion of the ACT. The most recent local scores averaged 17.9 points to 2010's 17.8-point average. But for nearly all of the eight years before that, scores were averaging above 18 points.
Composite score averages were statistically the same between the classes of 2011 and 2010, according to results released by the district, sitting at 17.5 points.
However, those numbers may be slightly deceiving due to changes in the type of data reported to the state and included in the statistics, according to Perry.
Perry told the Fort Morgan Board of Education that "no scores" from students who didn't test weren't factored into 2011 results, but they had been in 2010.
Board member Rob Carruth worried that because of the change the data wasn't correct in its analysis of scores being slightly up."We're not really comparing apples to apples," he said. "2011 is kind of a new baseline."Perry said that was true in a way, but that the board shouldn't discount the students' performance on the test.Just as Fort Morgan results were similar over the two years and not radically different, State performance was also stable in all tested areas, Perry said.Perry also told the board about some other statistical differences in the data, including the gap in results between white and Hispanic test-takers.
Overall, Hispanic students taking the ACT last year scored an average of 3.9 points below their white classmates.Perry also released data on scores from students re-taking the ACT exam last year.
That gap was higher than the two years before but lower than results from three and four years ago.
"We're right around average with the state," she said. "There's not really any dramatic news here."