Does the ACT still matter for Alabama high school students?

“Students have to aspire to attend college in order to commit to preparing for taking the ACT. I get some students who are just, ‘Hey, I just need a 19, or an 18.’ … In many cases, they don’t even take the ACT until that required state test in 11th grade.”

— FORMER MATH TEACHER, ACT PROCTOR AND PRINCIPAL AT GADSDEN CITY SCHOOLS

Kaitlyn Jenkins felt well prepared for college.

She took dual-enrollment classes offered by her high school in Phenix City. She had a high GPA and aced her science and math classes. She took a robotics course and attended coding camps in the summer. And she had mentors she could lean on for help.

But one thing was holding her back: the ACT.

“Once I sat down and took the test, it’s like my mind went blank,” said Jenkins, a computer-science major and volleyball player at Lawson State, who took the test in 2020.

Even though Auburn, her top choice, waived standardized testing requirements during the pandemic, Jenkins’ ACT score would have landed her in remedial classes, she said. So she chose instead to go to a school where she could jump right into rigorous coursework.

“I feel like the ACT shouldn’t stop you from wanting to go where you want to go,” she said.

AL.com recently spoke with several students and administrators in high-poverty districts and analyzed prepandemic school finance and ACT data.

We wanted to understand why — amid policy changes, funding shifts and emerging research — Alabama students continue to struggle on the standardized test. We also wanted to understand why white and nonwhite, and high-income and low-income students had such different test scores.

We also wanted to address another key question: Does the ACT still matter?

WHAT DO THE TESTS MEASURE?

The ACT calls its test an objective measure of achievement — and says the measure is better than a student’s grades or a school’s graduation rate.

Alabama has the highest graduation rate in the country, but recent data shows that the state still trails much of the nation in ACT scores. Nationwide, the gap between graduation rates and ACT scores has widened throughout the pandemic, according to a recent study by the ACT.

But research on how well the test predicts college success is mixed. Prepandemic studies showed high school grades are more likely to determine whether a student completes college, while ACT scores are typically better at predicting high achievement during a student’s freshman or sophomore years.

A recent University of Chicago study found that high school GPAs are stronger predictors of college completion than ACT scores. ACT-led studies have also acknowledged that the test alone is not enough to predict college outcomes.

WHY DO SOME STUDENTS DO BETTER THAN OTHERS?

While there’s debate about how well the test can measure college readiness, experts agree that the ACT doesn’t measure actual intelligence. Other studies have also suggested reasons why results may be skewed.

Civil rights groups and fair-testing advocates have called for states to limit high-stakes testing in schools and claim that the ACT is a more effective indicator of wealth and privilege than actual student knowledge.

“Is the predictive validity that it provides, which is fairly minimal, worth the heartache, pain and cost that it creates?” said Akil Bello, a test-prep expert who works at the National Center for Fair and Open Testing.

The center has also claimed that overemphasis on the test can narrow what is taught in the classroom and that some questions and passages still contain cultural bias.

Researchers are still trying to understand how race and gender influence student outcomes.

A 1994 University of South Florida study found that among high-schoolers with low GPAs, Black students had an even lower chance of graduating college than their non-Black peers. The opposite, however, was true for Black students with high GPAs; they were even more likely to graduate college.

In 2014, the ACT found that female students who had higher grades than their male counterparts in all subjects earned lower scores on the math and science sections of the ACT. Researchers suggested there was grading bias against males, rather than testing bias against females.

A more recent study by the American Psychological Association also found that GPA and standardized test scores are less likely to accurately predict success in college when broken down by ethnicity or gender but noted that several factors may affect those findings. In its report, the association called for continued research on the subject and suggested that colleges should take a deeper look at their admissions criteria.

HOW MUCH HELP SHOULD STUDENTS GET?

While researchers try to chart a path forward, Alabama colleges and K-12 schools continue to make critical decisions about how much — and what kind — of testing support to give to students.

As a former math teacher, ACT proctor and principal at Gadsden City Schools, Tony Reddick said he saw “tremendous needs’’ in his district for test prep and support. Reddick is now the system’s superintendent, and he’s been known to make a weekly trip to the high school’s field house, where he teaches athletes ACT tips and tricks and helps them hone their math skills.

“Students have to aspire to attend college in order to commit to preparing for taking the ACT,” he said. “I get some students who are just, ‘Hey, I just need a 19, or an 18.’… In many cases, they don’t even take the ACT until that required state test in 11th grade.”

State officials ramped up college-readiness efforts in 2020 and 2021, requiring all Alabama public schools to offer the ACT for free for 11th-graders, requiring the Free Application for Federal Student Aid to graduate and expanding the number of career coaches in the state.

Alabama is also one of about a dozen states that requires high-schoolers to take the ACT, and state schools can lose funding if they fail to administer the test.

But Alabama testing providers said that though the test was still required for high school students, ACT prep has recently taken a backseat in some districts, who might have shifted focus to address learning loss in other areas, staffing shortages or things like facilities upgrades during the pandemic.

Students also may have felt less pressure to perform well on the ACT and SAT, since many colleges waived testing requirements in 2020 and 2021.

“The schools that have the funding, have access to the funding, have the supports in place, they’re pushing through and continuing,” said Briana Morton, at College Admissions Made Possible, which provides ACT preparation services to several highpoverty districts in Alabama. “And it’s like we’re starting over from square one with those schools that don’t have access to the funding or are not utilizing the funding in the way that they could, because they don’t see the necessity of it.”

Despite some of its flaws, Reddick believes the test is still a vital tool to measure how well students are grasping classroom material. He also believes it offers students who may struggle in some areas another avenue to balance out their college applications.

That’s why, aside from tutoring students in his own time, he decided to invest in and apply for grants to fund more programs, like ACT boot camps and ACT Bridge, that place tutors in classrooms and help stress the importance of the test.

“That helps them to meet their respective goals as it relates to applying for colleges or going out into the workforce,” Reddick said. “And of course, that’s going to enhance their lives.”