TALLAHASSEE — Nearly 40 percent of Florida’s 2015 high school graduates who took the ACT failed to meet all four of the test’s performance benchmarks predicting success in college.
According to data released by the organization that develops the ACT, 130,798 students, or 79 percent of the state’s class of 2015, took the college entrance exam. Of those, 39 percent, compared to 31 percent nationally, met none of the benchmarks in the following areas: English, reading, mathematics and science. Twenty-one percent met all four benchmarks; that compares to 28 percent nationwide.
Florida students performed best in English and worst in science. Fifty-four percent of those who took the test scored an 18 out of 36 on the English section, which is the score that’s shown to predict success in college coursework, with an additional 10 percent of students scoring within two points of the benchmark. In science, only 29 percent of the state’s test takers scored a 23 out of 36, which is the benchmark for that section, with another 12 percent scoring within two points.
