Taking the ACT a quarter century after high school

[Warning: Long post ahead]

Yesterday I took the ACT college entrance exam for the first time. At age 44.

It all started with Ira Socol’s blog post, which argued that if politicians think that the standardized tests they are espousing are so important, they had better be able to pass those tests themselves. I then sent these tweets:

Iowa legislators & @terrybranstad: Are you brave enough to do this? bit.ly/xFGZNz#iaedfuture#didn‘tthinkso

— Scott McLeod (@mcleod) February 8, 2012

Iowa legislators & @terrybranstad: Could you pass the very tests you espouse? bit.ly/xFGZNz #iaedfuture #didn'tthinkso

— Scott McLeod (@mcleod) February 9, 2012

Neither Iowa Governor Terry Branstad nor any state legislators responded (surprise!) but Dr. Jason Glass, Director of the Iowa Department of Education, said that he would take the ACT if I would too. The good folks at ACT said that they would be happy to administer a retired test. And that's how I ended up in a small room at Roosevelt High School in Des Moines with Jason and 8 students who took the exam for practice.

How was the experience?

I took the SAT when I was a kid so the ACT was new territory for me. I'll break out my thoughts by test area...

English. The English test was primarily a test of grammar, sentence formation, and paragraph flow and structure. I was asked many questions about punctuation and phrasing and word choice (e.g., who or whom or whose or who's). Occasionally I was asked about spelling (e.g., its v. it's) or whether a particular sentence or paragraph should be inserted, deleted, and/or moved elsewhere in a reading passage. The focus was primarily on writing composition. At times I felt like I do when I'm helping edit one of my students' doctoral dissertations! With the caveat that I'm not a writing expert, I felt that this test did a fairly decent job of assessing whether students could identify grammar errors, poor wording, stilted sentence flow, and other technical mistakes in written passages.

Math. I know how to do a number of advanced statistical procedures, including linear regression and hierarchical linear modeling. However, I still thought that this would be the hardest test for me since I haven't done any geometry or trigonometry since I took those high school courses almost 30 years ago. Most of the test focused on algebraic and geometric concepts. There were a handful of trigonometry questions, plus I was surprised to see a question on logarithms. I correctly completed more problems than I thought I would but - probably due to lack of day-to-day immersion and practice - was correct about the pacing. I had to pencil in last-minute random guesses for several questions because I simply ran out of time. My biggest concerns about the math test relate to the fact that much of what is assessed is math that - and I think I'm safe saying this - most of us will never use again (how many of you have needed to calculate the cosine of an angle recently? how many of you have needed to determine the formula of a circle on a standard coordinate plane?). This is a curricular issue more than an assessment issue since the ACT draws off of the math courses that most high school students take. Smarter people than I have weighed in on what math courses high schoolers should take and I'll defer to them before I reveal too much of my ignorance. I know some of the arguments about 'inculcating habits of mind' and 'more students might be turned onto higher-level math and science' and so on. It just bothers me a great deal that we're herding many, many students through math classes that are largely irrelevant to their future life success (most high school students don't get much probability and statistics, for example, even though that's what I think they'll need most often beyond foundational numeracy). My other big concern about the math test was that the problems generally were either decontextualized pure math problems (students: who cares?) or pseudocontextual word problems (students: who cares?) of the type that Dan Meyer rails against regularly. There wasn't much on the math test that I think would be of interest to typical high school students outside of the artificial environments of classes and testing. [Note: I'm happy to be proven wrong on any of these concerns, so have at it in the comment area.]

Reading. 4 multi-paragraph reading passages pulled from 1 fictional novel and 3 non-fiction essays or books; 10 questions per passage. Could I pull out essential details from what I read? Could I infer authors' intent? Could I decipher meaning and voice? Could I make reasonable conclusions based on the text? A classic test of reading comprehension. Yes, I could do these things. This was the test on which I scored best.

Science. This test had 7 passages, each of which contained one or more often-interconnected tables, charts, graphs, maps, or diagrams. Most of the passages described various scientific experiments and most included additional narrative text. This was the hardest test for me, despite having taken numerous advanced science courses in both high school and college. I am comfortable with electrical, genetic, geological, kinetic, chemical, and other scientific terms and concepts and, as a professor, regularly spend time deciphering research studies and policy reports that present information in complex ways. The challenge for me was not understanding the material but rather navigating the sheer amount of information presented and answering the questions within the time given. I easily could have used another 10 to 15 minutes. Like for the math test, I had to hastily pencil in some random guesses and did worst on this test. I am very impressed by any high school students that score well on this test. I'll also note that ACT admits that the science test doesn't directly assess scientific knowledge or skills (although some familiarity with scientific concepts and terminology helps for comprehension purposes). Instead, what the test assesses is the ability to decipher various ways of presenting scientific information and to then make appropriate inferences and conclusions. That's a worthy goal but I wonder if renaming the test to something like 'Information and Data Analysis' might be more accurate.

Writing. We didn't get to take the writing assessment, primarily because of ACT's desire to do same-day scoring of our results.

How do I now think about the ACT?

Jason and Governor Branstad have proposed legislation requiring every Iowa high school student to take the ACT. Here are some of my thoughts about the exam and its desirability as a statewide mandate...

The issue of time. Time is an issue for any assessment. Students shouldn't have unlimited time to finish but neither should they have inadequate time. The ACT is intentionally designed to be an assessment that sorts, sifts, selects, and ranks participants. Having now taken it, I wonder how much of that sorting and ranking function is accomplished by benchmarking time of completion to those students who are quicker at computation or faster readers. This is different than benchmarking to difficulty of task. I have a feeling that many students might be more successful if they simply had more time to navigate the assessment and show their understanding.

Cognitive complexity. I confess that the exam often was more difficult than I thought it would be. Despite being exposed beforehand to some practice questions, the overall experience was more demanding and draining than I expected. I didn't take any practice exams (which might have helped with my pacing) but did spend a few hours reviewing some math formulas and familiarizing myself with the other tests.

Content of the tests. With the exception of the math concerns that I expressed above, it's hard for me to contend that the skills tested on the ACT aren't worth knowing. Students and citizens need to be technically-competent writers. Students and citizens need to have knowledge of at least some more-than-basic mathematical concepts. Students and citizens need to be able to comprehend complex texts and information displays. And so on.

I think we can do better. Despite being more impressed with the ACT than I anticipated, I still left the exam wanting more. Although my overall experience was positive and I learned a lot about the exam, I still have the same disposition toward it that I had before. Unlike many school and university assessments, the ACT doesn't assess too much factual recall. I think that's good. The exam does, however, focus heavily on procedural knowledge (and provides a variety of contexts in which students can show that knowledge). Occasionally it assesses - in a fairly-limited bubble test way - some application, synthesis, analytical, or inferential skills. But for the most part, the exam does not get at higher-order thinking skills in any substantive, applied, hands-on, performance-based way. Even the writing assessment (from what I can tell from ACT's materials and what I've read about it) can be successfully completed in fairly rote, formulaic ways. If we're going to ask every student in the state to take a college- and career-readiness exam, it should be an exam worth taking. Despite its long history and deep roots, I'm not convinced that the ACT is it.

What might be some alternatives? Although I'm fairly statistics-savvy, I'm not a psychometrician. And although I know a lot about incorporating data-informed practices into schools, I'm not an expert in large-scale and/or high-stakes assessments, particularly those used for college admissions. I have a generalized interest in these topics but do not live in this space on a day-to-day basis. All that said, I look at learning environments like those provided by the New Tech Network or the Big Picture Schools or the Expeditionary Learning schools or the Science Leadership Academy and I want to see more of that for our students. Those schools - and states like New Hampshire - are working hard to assess students with performance-based assessments rather than (or at least along with) bubble tests. Students have the chance to be innovative and creative. They have the chance to do inquiry-based, interest-based, hands-on work. They are able to show that they are critical thinkers and problem solvers. And then I hear about tests like PISA, the College and Work Readiness Assessment (CWRA), and those given by other countries - tests that purportedly focus on higher-level cognitive skills and give students opportunities to show not just what they know but what they can do with what they know. And I want that for our students too. As it's currently designed, does the ACT get us there? Nope. Might the ACT be part of a more holistic, multiple-assessment strategy for getting at college- and career-readiness? Perhaps. But it's not enough by itself. Many hopes are riding on the PARCC and Smarter Balanced assessments that are being created right now. We'll see if they can fulfill their promise.

Concluding thoughts

I'll close with a few additional thoughts about the experience of taking the ACT as an adult several decades removed from initial college entry and the proposed participation mandate for all students...

Try it (again). I think it behooves us as adults - particularly those of us involved in education delivery, educator preparation, or educational policy- and decision-making - to be fairly familiar with what we're asking our youth to do. Many of us still think that schooling and testing and learning and being a child or adolescent are like they were when we were young. They're not. Despite our general inclinations to believe that our own time in school was the educational golden age worth returning to, we must recognize that the scale, scope, complexity, and demands of course content, curricula, assessments, and culture all have increased dramatically over the years/decades. If you've never shadowed a high school student throughout her entire school day, try it. I think you'll be surprised. Similarly, I encourage you to retake a college entrance exam like Jason and I did. I believe you'll find it worthwhile and illuminating. And then see if what we're asking of our youth is what we really want as parents, communities, and citizens.

You're so brave! I was struck by the sheer number of comments that Jason and I received that expressed disbelief that we would do something like this. Typical statements included variations of 'You're so brave! I could never do that!' and 'You're willing to report your score publicly? Really?' and 'There's no way in hell I'd ever take that exam again!' and so on. I'm still mulling over what it says about us, our schools, and our society when we're willing and even eager to have our children submit to experiences that we're not willing to engage in ourselves as adults.

Mandated participation. Like some states, the Des Moines Public Schools has all of its students take the ACT. I asked Roosevelt High School's principal what that experience was like for lower-achieving students. She said that a great many of them left the exam utterly humiliated. Jason was less concerned about that statement than I was, saying to the press something along the lines of 'Far worse things will happen in life to those students than sitting through a 4-hour exam for which they're unprepared.' I, however, am greatly empathetic toward those adolescents. Do academically-disengaged students really need yet another formal reminder - this one with state and/or national, not just local, weight behind it - that they're not up to snuff? How is kicking them while they're down an incentive toward college or career readiness?

Still searching. Jason and I received a very kind offer from the Council for Aid to Education to also take the CWRA. I'm going to take them up on it and am excited about the opportunity. I wonder if I also can take PISA? I'm on an assessment quest. What else should I investigate or take?

The media. Lesson learned: No matter how much you emphasize that you're focused on learning about and better understanding the substance and process of the college entrance exam that you're publicly taking, the media and others will inevitably focus on your results. Jason and I both scored better than we anticipated. If you really must know, Google it.

If you've read all the way down to here, I appreciate your engagement and will await your comments and feedback. Thanks!

Image credits: Iowa Department of Education