College Readiness in 2024: Are Your High School Seniors Prepared?
The Class of 2024’s high school seniors’ college readiness has been impacted by various factors, including changes in college admission trends, the effectiveness of college preparation strategies, and the COVID-19 pandemic’s overall effects on education.
Have our fervent efforts helped close the learning gap for our current high school seniors or are they still falling behind?
What ACT Says
In October 2023, a report from ACT revealed a concerning trend: the average ACT® score for high school seniors had fallen for the sixth year in a row, reaching 19.5—a slight drop of 0.3 points from the previous year.
Notably, over 40% of these seniors did not meet any college readiness benchmarks, with a staggering 70% falling short in mathematics. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the class of 2023 was clear, with a record 43% of students struggling to meet readiness benchmarks.
Despite students’ GPAs rising and their self-reported preparedness for college, ACT’s CEO, Janet Godwin, stressed the urgent need for ongoing action and policy-level support to tackle these systemic issues. The report’s key findings also underscored a decline in average scores across English, mathematics, reading, and science, pointing to a worrying trend in students’ readiness for success after high school.
This data is based on the ACT® results of approximately 1.4 million high school seniors across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It spotlights the urgent need for strategies to better prepare our students for postsecondary education.
What College Board Says
In contrast, in September 2023, College Board reported the SAT® Program Results for the Class of 2023 indicate a growth in SAT® participation, with over 1.9 million students taking the SAT® at least once—up from 1.7 million in 2022.
Notably, 67% of test-takers utilized the SAT® School Day program, a record-high percentage, suggesting continued interest in standardized testing despite a predominantly test-optional environment. The program saw a 17% increase in participation, with nearly 1.3 million students taking the SAT® through school-day testing.
However, the average SAT® total score for the class of 2023 decreased to 1028, compared to 1050 for the class of 2022. Despite the decline, 40% of SAT® takers met or exceeded college readiness benchmarks in both Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (ERW) and Math.
Approximately 3.7 million students participated in PSAT/NMSQT® or PSAT 10®, consistent with the previous school year. New research suggests that, even with test-optional policies, over 80% of students want the choice to send their scores, and the SAT® continues to provide valuable insights beyond grades in predicting post-college success. The findings indicate that colleges consider SAT® scores to gain additional insights into student achievement and support efforts for retention and academic progress.
Large-Scale Initiatives to Remedy the Problem
While these two reports show opposing findings, the decline in college preparedness remains a concerning one. Thankfully, in 2024, the Biden-Harris Administration is taking large steps to help remedy this ongoing issue for our struggling students.
On January 17, the Biden-Harris Administration unveiled an initiative known as the “Improving Student Achievement Agenda.” This program is designed to boost academic performance by implementing a variety of strategies. The goal is to ensure that students are not just passing, but truly mastering their subjects and gaining the skills they need for success in college and beyond.
The agenda targets these challenges by prioritizing the enhancement of educational quality and delivering focused support to students such as personalized learning plans, supplemental resources for struggling students, and measures to tackle chronic absenteeism.
This plan’s overarching objective is to prepare students for college and their future careers, no matter what challenges they’ve faced. It understands that every student is different and highlights the need to give them the right knowledge and skills to succeed.
Small-Scale Initiatives to Remedy the Problem
While the ACT and College Board reports are important for us to know, those statistics only mean that we need to keep up our best efforts. What’s more, if we can help our students succeed where others are not, our businesses will thrive.
So, what can we do to better support our struggling high school seniors?
Provide individualized test prep. If you’re not already tailoring your test-prep plans to each of your clients’ academic needs, then you’re not giving them the support that they need to reach their educational goals and objectives. It’s crucial to consider your students as individuals with learning differences who cannot succeed with a one-size-fits-all test-prep plan or strategies.
Practice like it's the real deal. Make sure that your test takers are getting plenty of practice test sessions using the actual test. Take it a step further and give them comparable testing conditions to better prepare for test day. Practice tests should conform to the standards of content, testing conditions, and timing set by the actual SAT® and ACT® tests.
Teach multiple types of strategies. As we’ve said, there is no such thing as one-size-fits-all test prep, and the strategies you teach for reading, writing, math, science, and all of the concepts in those categories must also suit the client’s unique learning style.
Utilize the data. The data that you collect—notes taken during tutoring sessions, results from practice tests, and score reports—is clutch in mapping out your client’s test-prep plan. Data shows improvement, highlights weaknesses, helps you choose which concepts to prioritize, and helps you track their progress over time to help reach the student’s academic goals.
Teach and Train Smarter, Not Harder. Make sure that you and your clients are getting the most out of your tutoring sessions and the time in between. Don’t fill that time with busy work, make sure that every session and every task assigned is making progress toward the student’s end goal.
The standardized test score data from 2023 has made it abundantly clear that getting our 2024 high school seniors ready for college is a big task. By personalizing test-prep plans, using real practice tests, teaching a variety of strategies, and letting data guide our plans, we can help give our high school seniors the academic boost they need to succeed.
We Are Ready for the Digital SAT®! Are you?
As the SAT® and ACT® transition to all-digital testing, we are ready to support your tutoring business with the first and best custom-branded, fully digital test-prep courses. Our white-label, all-digital, adaptive Digital SAT® practice tests include accurate, algorithmic scoring. This gives your tutors and clients access to the actionable data they need for tailored instruction and score optimization.
Ready to take your test prep to the cutting edge? Schedule a free demo and try it for yourself!