Stable ACT scores can't mask concerns

Why are so few Illinois high school graduates prepared for basic college-level academics?

And how can matters be improved?

Those again emerge as the most important questions with the state's release this week of ACT scores for 2007 high school graduates.

The results contain some positive news. Statewide, the average ACT score again inched upward. While the improvement -- up to 20.5 -- is not statistically significant in contrast to last year, the trend remains steadily upward in the six years since Illinois began requiring all juniors -- not just college-bound students -- to take the ACT. That's a sign that high schools are doing a little better job of preparing their charges for life and education beyond secondary school.

But that improvement cannot divert attention from the fact that high numbers of high school graduates are not well prepared for the next rung of the academic ladder.

According to the new results, only 21 percent of 2007 Illinois graduates scored well enough on the ACT to expect that they'll achieve grades of at least a C for core college courses in English, math, reading and science.

The situation goes from troubling to downright alarming when it comes to black and Hispanic students, whose scores indicate that only 3 and 7 percent, respectively, are prepared to succeed in all areas of first-year college courses.

When further breakdowns of the data are available, they likely will show that a higher percentage of suburban students are prepared for the rigors of higher education than students from elsewhere in Illinois.

Even if that's the case, it will be cause for neither smugness nor complacency. Results from previous years and surveys of local community colleges have indicated that surprisingly high numbers of students from even top suburban districts are not fully prepared for college.

None of this would be so troubling were the ACT not generally considered the most accurate predictor of student success in college.

What to do?

As state School Superintendent Christopher Koch pointed out to the Daily Herald's Tara Malone, ACT scores are higher among students who challenge themselves with more rigorous schedules. Students who take four years of English and three of math, science and social studies score higher than those who take less.

Illinois legislators already have made the smart move of toughening basic high school graduation requirements; high school administrators and counselors need to press the issue even further in their own schools.

It's not necessary -- or even desirable -- that every single high school graduate go on to college. But something is wrong when so few are fully prepared for an increasingly competitive world in which highly educated U.S. students and American success must walk hand-in-hand.