Iowa City, IA -- Del Norte High School in Albuquerque is one of only 10 schools in the nation selected to participate in a study on how schools prepare students for success in college coursework. The school was selected because of its students' strong ACT scores in English, math, and science and its diverse student population. It was the only school in New Mexico chosen to participate.
The study, called "on Course for Success," is jointly sponsored by ACT, Inc. and The Education Trust. The goal is to determine what elements of high school courses prepare students for credit-bearing college-level courses. The study will define what constitutes "rigorous" high school coursework in English, math, and science.
The two not-for-profit organizations joined forces to sponsor the study because they saw a need to increase students' level of preparation for college. Statistics show that half of all entering college students must take at least one remedial course, and these students are less likely than others to persist in college and earn their degree. College attendance and graduation rates remain significantly lower for most groups of ethnic minority students than for Caucasians. According to the U.S. Department of Education, the single best predictor of college success is students' performance in high quality high school courses.
Del Norte High School was chosen out of a pool of over 4,000 schools nationally to participate in the study. In 2001 and 2002, more than 66 percent of the school's graduates who took the ACT earned scores at or above the established college ready benchmark (a score of 18 or higher) on the ACT English Test, more than 38 percent scored at or above the benchmark (22 or higher) on the ACT Math Test, and more than 25 percent scored at or above the benchmark (24 or higher) on the ACT Science Test. Slightly more than a third (35%) of the school's students are ethnic minorities.
"The high school's staff, students, parents and the entire community should be proud of the school's inclusion in this study," said Cynthia Schmeister, ACT's senior vice president of research and development. "We hope to learn valuable lessons from what the school is doing right."
The study is underway and will run through the end of December. The focus will be on those specific courses where half or more of the enrolled students scored at or above the college-ready benchmarks in English, math, or science for the academic years 2001 and 2002.
ACT and The Education Trust will issue a written report that summarizes the findings of the study in the spring of 2004.
ACT is an independent, not-for-profit organization that provides assessment, research, information and program-managment services in the broad areas of education planning, career planning and workforce development. For more information about ACT, visit www.act.org.
The Education Trust is an independent, not-for-profit organization whose mission is to make schools and colleges, pre-K through 16 work for all of the young people they serve. For more information about The Education Trust, visit www.edtrust.org.