The Arkansas School for Mathematics Sciences and the Arts’ Class of 2020 scored a composite 30.6 as a class. That tied the high-mark in school history set by the Class of 2017.
It was the fourth straight year that graduates had an average of at least a 30 on the national college admissions exam. It was the seventh year in a row that students scored at least a 29 average on the ACT as a graduating class. The Class of 2020 included 107 students.
The national composite average dropped a tenth of a point to 20.6 while the average composite score for Arkansas students taking the test was 19.
Students applying to ASMSA must initially take the ACT as parts of the admissions criteria. Students generally see an increase in their ACT scores during their time at ASMSA. The Class of 2020 had a composite average of 26.2 upon entering ASMSA.
“We are proud of the Class of 2020 for their commitment to success on the ACT as well as their growth on the exam during their time at ASMSA,” ASMSA Director Corey Alderdice said. “While the ACT is only a snapshot of students’ critical thinking and quantitative abilities, we recognize the role the exam plays in positioning students for college admission and scholarship programs and champion student efforts to improve scores in order to unlock opportunities.”
The ACT is scored on a scale of 1 to 36, with 36 being the highest possible score. Students also receive scores in four individual testing areas, which are combined for the composite score. The individual testing areas are English, mathematics, reading and science.
The Class of 2020 scored well on each individual testing area. The average scores on each subject were:
- English: 31.7
- Mathematics: 29.1
- Reading: 32.8
- Science: 31.1
Stuart Flynn, dean of academic affairs at ASMSA, attributed a significant portion of the students’ success on the test to the students’ hometown school districts throughout Arkansas.
“The scores are an indicator that schools around the state are preparing students to be successful as they progress through their school careers. The advanced coursework that students experience at ASMSA creates learners who are able to handle any kind of assessment,” Flynn said.
Alderdice said that ASMSA strives to be viewed as an extension of every school in the state. He said such scores are only possible with the combined preparation students received from their home institutions and continued study at ASMSA. All ASMSA classes are taught on the college level, and the school offers approximately 60 classes that allow students to earn college credit via a partnership with the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith. Recent cohorts of graduates have completed an average of 50 hours of college credit through the ASMSA experience. While the ACT is designed to measure how prepared academically students are for the first year of college, it does not reflect ASMSA’s efforts to create confident learners who are able to handle college life and beyond.
“ASMSA is a college-bridge environment — it combines the academic rigor, research experience and opportunities to study abroad of college with the supervision, safety, support systems and structure of high school,” Alderdice said.
“There’s this idea of college readiness being measured by ACT score benchmarks, which predicts how likely a chance a student will have making a C or better in a college class, but there’s more to consider than academic capacity. Can the student live independently? Can they act autonomously and make appropriate decisions as a young adult?”