“For our students, it’s not about the survival of the fittest but making them fit to survive!” -Dr. Garrick Ratliff
The beginning of every fall millions of students begin their college career. Students, freshmen, are stepping out on their own for the first time, living life without the help of parents and the responsibility of taking care of themselves as well as any of life’s problems that may come their way. A world of knowledge that they are about to enter, a step toward fulfilling their life’s goals. Being able to attend campus parties that are not supervised, being able to go out without asking permission. Attending classes that are in their area of interest, working toward a career that they are passionate about
The ACT® College Readiness Benchmarks are scores on the ACT subject area tests that represent the level of achievement required for students to have a 50% chance of obtaining a B or higher or about a 75% chance of obtaining a C or higher in corresponding credit-bearing first-year college courses. Based on a nationally stratified sample, the benchmarks are median course placement values for these institutions and represent a typical set of expectations. The STEM Benchmark in math and science represents a 50% probability of earning a B or better in identified STEM classes such as calculus and chemistry. The ACT College Readiness Benchmarks are:
| College Course/ Course Area | Subject Area Test | ACT College Readiness Benchmark |
| English Composition | English | 18 |
| Social Sciences | Reading | 22 |
| College Algebra | Math | 22 |
| Biology | Science | 23 |
| STEM | Math & Science | 26 |
What does this mean? Students that meet the benchmark score of a 22 in Math have a 50% chance of earning a “B” in a first-year college Math course or a 75% chance of earning a “C” in the same class. This same logic is applied to the ACT subject tests of Social Sciences, Biology, and English. The national average ACT scores in each of these subject areas in 2019 were, Math-20.5 (1.5 points lower than the 22 benchmark), Reading-21.3 (0.7 of a point less than the 22 benchmark), and the overall composite score of 20.8 (down 0.3 of a point from the 21.1 average composite in 2008). In their 2019 survey The Condition of College and Career Readiness 2019 ACT researched the progress of the class of 2019 in relation to college and career readiness, the data is based on 52% of the graduating class of 2019 (1.8 million graduates that took the ACT). Since 2009, states have instituted “college and career readiness” programs based on the adoption of the Common Core Standards, that every state has to increase its rate of educational attainment beyond high school to 60 percent by 2025, but as we can tell by the data the state programs are not making great strides toward readiness.
From their 2019 report, ACT listed the following recommendations:
- Ensure that all students take rigorous academic courses. Students who report taking at least a minimum core academic curriculum* continue to outperform students who report not taking the core (in 2019, with an average Composite score of 22.2 versus 18.9). All students—particularly those who meet one or more underserved criteria, who are less likely to complete a core curriculum—should have access to, and be able to take, a rigorous high school curriculum.
- Give educators resources to personalize instruction according to students’ individual needs. Given the critical role of teachers in preparing students for college and career, teachers should have the resources and professional development opportunities necessary to personalize their students’ learning, particularly for those students who meet one or more underserved criteria and may need extra support.
- Assess student learning and implement improvement strategies throughout students’ education and career. ACT research and standards shows that preparing students for college and career begins in elementary school. Surveying ACT standards for course development, shows that many of those standards begin in elementary school, if these standards are not mastered at each grade level, a student’s readiness is seriously jeopardized if they are not on target by middle school.
- Ensure that students’ education is holistic and addresses the needs of the “whole learner.” ACT research shows that students with the same grades and test scores but stronger social and emotional learning (SEL) skills are more successful academically. This is the first acknowledgement from ACT that identifies social/emotional learning as a major component of a student’s success beyond graduation.
Recommendations 1-3 are repeats, basically the same recommendations ACT offered over the previous year’s: a curriculum aligned and rigorous to high standards; give teachers the resources and professional development they need to ensure student’s academic success; and assess student learning to make sure they are on target to meet the standard. It’s the fourth recommendation that has never been mentioned by ACT before and is now a major part of their improvement plan for students. So, why now? And what is social and emotional learning?
For decades schools have been focusing on test scores, graduation rates, grade point averages, and college admissions. Our educational institutions have become one-dimensional in the fact that we measure success with academic performance. Just by focusing on academic performance we have failed our children for life after graduation. It used to be that educational systems worked so that students made it to graduation, but what if we structured our mission, vision, and curriculum with the thought of not just getting our students to graduation but preparing them for life five or ten years beyond graduation? Not only prepare them academically but holistically, to meet the challenges they will face in their life and overcome them. Schools today cannot have the culture of “survival of the fittest” among our students but make them “fit to survive”. To set goals for themselves and be able to reach those goals. Sounds simple? It is, but the problem is the willingness to change, the willingness to say this is not working, and the willingness to focus on what success is in life and not just in the classroom. So, why now? What is going on that social and emotional learning is becoming so important? Generation Z! Research has proven that this generation of children are the most anxious, that “The average high school kid today has the same level of anxiety as the average psychiatric patient in the early 1950s.” (Robert Leahy)
Social emotional learning is a direct outcome of Emotional Intelligence (EI), it is the learning component of EI. EI is a set of emotional and social skills that influence the way we perceive and express ourselves, develop and maintain social relationships, cope with challenges, and use emotional information in an effective and meaningful way (Multi-Health Systems, 2011, p. 1). EI covers everything form how confident we feel, the ability to express our emotions in a positive way, how well we can form positive successful relationships, the ability to stand up for ourselves, to setting and accomplishing the goals we have set for ourselves, and how we handle the stress that we face on a daily basis. Colleges and universities are doing away with students submitting their ACT or SAT scores for admission, even before the COVID-19 pandemic became an issue. Higher institutions of learning have discovered that EI is a better predictor of college success, and retention, than a test score. The University of Chicago went to test-optional admission before the pandemic, instead of having a cut score on the ACT or SAT for admission, the University of Chicago is looking at each applicant through a holistic process, looking at the student’s high school body of work and listening to their story of success.
Schulman (1995) found that University of Pennsylvania first-year students’ scores on optimism were a better indicator of a first-year freshman GPA than an ACT or SAT score. Mann and Kanoy (2010) found, in a diverse set of students across the United States and Canada, that first year college GPA could be predicted by optimism (believing that you will succeed when time get tough), self-regard (knowing both your strengths and weaknesses), impulse control (resisting that impulse to play instead of study), and problem solving (influence emotions to help you solve problems).
Students, whether in college or in a job right out of high school, are going to face a multitude of stressors. EI skills can help students navigate these many challenges, to help them keep moving forward.
Aligning Postsecondary Expectations and High School Practice: The Gap Defined, Policy Implications of the ACT National Curriculum Survey® Results 2005–2006 (1st ed., Vol. 1, pp. 2-12, Rep.). (2007). Iowa City, IA: ACT. DOI:IC 0508A4070
Mann, D., & Kanoy, K. (2010, February). The EQ factor in student retention and success: From theory to practice. Paper presented at the annual First Year Experience Conference, Denver, CO.
Multi-Health Systems, (2011). Emotional quotient inventory 2.0 (eq-I 2,0) user’s habdbook. Toronto, Ontario: Multi-Health Systems.
Schulman, P. (1995). Explanatory style and achievement in school and work. In G. Buchanan & M. Seligman (Eds.), Explanatory style (pp. 159-171). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
The Prepared Student 