Regardless of how one feels about testing, it's certainly better to beat the national average:
According to data released by ACT, the makers of the same-named test of college readiness, the average ACT score of a student in Illinois is 20.7 of 36 possible.
But in Urbana, Champaign, St. Joseph-Ogden and several other high schools, the averages surpass the state's.
In Urbana, for at least the eight years that Principal Laura Taylor has records, students have scored higher than the state average. This year, the class of 2008 averaged 21 – the same as the national average for the test, and a score she attributes to the school's "very strong college-prep curriculum."
Taylor said the school did not yet have an average score for the incoming seniors in the class of 2009, but would have it available soon.
Both Champaign high schools have scored higher than the state average since 2004, said Assistant Superintendent Beth Shepperd.
"We're very proud of that," she said.
The average score for students in the Centennial Class of 2008 was 21.6, and for Central students it was 20.9.
In addition, all Illinois students are required to take the ACT, which impacts how we do against the national average. We too often focus on our local schools' deficiencies, and forget to mention good news like this.
Good news? Barely above average is good news when these schools are in the same town as our state's flagship university?
Proud? I guess one would be proud when barely above average is considered good news.
The national average includes something like 47 states that don't require all their students to take the test. Our local scores, where all the students have to take it, still beat that national average. Yes, that's good news.
Typical shell game...did you see the article a few month's back in the TRIB about how the SAT is "re calculating" the scores? Wonder if the ACT is doing the same? Remember when 95-100 used to be an A, then it was 90-100, ...hmmmmmmm.
It is nice to see the increase but we are still the lowest of any neighbor states. http://www.act.org/news/data/08/states.html
This post seems particularly hard for many readers to understand. Oil Man - if you follow that link you will notice that only three states (IL, MI, CO) require all students to take the ACT. Of those three states, Illinois' scores are the highest. You are right that we are lower than the neighboring states, but none of those states require every student to take the test.
To put this into simpler terms, in Illinois every student must take the test during his/her junior year. This includes many students who are on special education caseloads, learners of English as a Second Language, an even some of the severely developmentally disabled students. Once all of these tests are taken, all of the scores are added together and divided by the number of test takers. This gives you your average. Please note that the other 47 states' scores are averaged only on the scores of those who choose to take the test. Therefore, their averages are mainly coming from the scores of kids who are going to four year colleges.
Considering all of that, it is quite an accomplishment for Illinois to have scores in the lower 20s. I understand that no matter what happens some folks, like JohnBoy, will never have anything good to say about our public schools. But for unbiased observers who understand the numbers, these scores are very impressive indeed.
You would have a valid point D. Boon if Illinois actually had a 100% as did MI and CO but without the data from the other 2% not reported, it cannot be stated "Of those three states, Illinois' scores are the highest".
Uggh, both Champaign schools were *under* the national average.
Average is not good. Average is average.
Uncontextualized data are uncontextualized data. I understand that it's hard to research enough sometimes to understand the meaning of statistics, but to respond to the context by merely reshouting the uncontextualized data is ridiculous.
If my daughter is a below average all-ages baseball player at age 20, then she's probably going to have to find another job. If it's the same at age 4, then she's probably going to be one of the greatest who ever lived.
Context matters.
Illinois students have the highest reported scores of any state that requires all students to take the test. Urbana and Champaign schools are above the national average despite all students taking the test and 50 of the highest performing students in the region being siphoned off each year to the regional school that is in the top five in the country, and often number one each year.
Can that be improved upon? Sure. Michael Phelps might win 10 gold medals next Olympics. But that doesn't mean we don't recognize the achievement.
"Uggh, both Champaign schools were *under* the national average.
Average is not good. Average is average."
Boggle.
YIPPEEE...we made it up to average. Why are you so defensive of such minimal achievement?
Why are so many people having such a difficult time understanding basic arithmetic? (And I'm not talking about the students taking the test....)