IOWA CITY, Iowa, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Only a quarter of students taking the ACT college entrance exam last year met the college-ready benchmarks in all four areas, the organization said Wednesday.
The organization said benchmarks "are scores on the ACT subject area tests that represent the level of achievement required for students to have a 50 percent chance of of obtaining a B or higher or about a 75 percent chance of obtaining a C or higher in corresponding credit bearing first-year college courses."
The report, "The Condition of College & Career Readiness 2012," said 67 percent of all ACT tested high school graduates met the English college readiness benchmark, 52 percent of the graduates met the reading benchmark and 46 percent met the mathematics benchmark.
Just under one in three -- 31 percent -- met the benchmark in science.
And only one in four -- 25 percent -- met the benchmarks in all four subjects.
The results have been about the same for three years.
"In addition to a consistent, rigorous set of essential K-12 content standards," the report said, "states must define performance standards so that everyone knows 'how good is good enough' for students to have a reasonable chance of success at college or on the job."
About the same name of students, roughly 1.6 million, each take the ACT exam and the SAT exam every year.
The organization is headquartered in Iowa.
