There’s good and bad news for graduating California high school students.
State Supt. Tom Torlakson announced Wednesday that nearly 95 percent of 2011 high school graduates met the California High School Exit Examination requirement, including improvement among the state's African American and Hispanic students.
The results comes on the heels of a study that showed only 30 percent of 2011 high school California graduates met the all of ACT academic benchmarks. ACT tests measure academic achievements and preparedness starting in the 8th grade up until graduation nationwide.
While the ACT and CAHSEE are very different tests, they measure a couple similar things. The ACT tests four components: English, reading, math and science. CAHSEE assesses English-language arts and math. Students taking the CAHSEE overall did equally well on math and English, while the ACT scores showed students excelling in English over the other subjects.
But significantly fewer students take the ACT. Nearly 100,000 graduating seniors took the ACT throughout the country, while more than 420,000 California students were assessed by CAHSEE.
The ACT did show that California excelled in all areas compared to the rest of the nation combined. California had 72 percent of students meeting English college readiness compared to the national average of 65.
