ACT Test Scores For Burlington High School Students Are Above State Average

80 Burlington high school students that will graduate in 2015 took the ACT test, of those students 40% are ready for college-level coursework, the state average is 33%.

The ACT consists of curriculum-based tests of educational development in english, mathematics, reading and science designed to measure the skills needed for success in first-year college coursework.

Students need to get at least a score of 18 on the ACT english composition portion of the test. 80% of the Burlington students met or exceeded that score compared to 75% for the state average.

For the mathematics portion the minimum score is 22 and 49% of the Burlington students hit that mark or higher, the state average is slightly lower at 48%

The reading portion which pertains to social science also has a minimum score of 22 and 63% of Burlington students reached at least that while the state average for 2015 is at 55%.

Also, the minimum required score for the science portion of the test is 23 points, Burlington students are at 59%, the state is at 48%.

Curriculum director Sharron Dentlinger told the school board at Monday night’s meeting that, “This is a great report because it shows what our kids are doing and what we are giving them as far as curriculum and coursework is meeting it’s mark.”

ACT research has shown that it is the rigor of coursework, rather than simply the number of core courses, that has the greatest impact on ACT performance and college readiness. For example, students taking biology and chemistry in combination with physics typically achieve higher ACT science scores than students taking less than three years of science courses.

The average number of students from the Burlington School District to take the ACT has dropped by 14%, Dentlinger said that one possible reason for the low participation is because more students are looking at two-year programs offered at local community colleges.

Students interested in the two-year programs take the ACT Compass test, Dentlinger is in the process of getting those test scores from Southeastern Community College in Burlington.