Reading on the ACT College Entrance Exam: What can we learn from students' practice test performance?

Abstract

This study investigated students' strengths and weaknesses on the ACT reading subtest. The study focused on how the existing curriculum of a school might be enhanced to promote students' performance on the assessment. The study addressed four domains of education: learners, learning context, curriculum, and assessment. The participants in the study were 21 African American, 12th grade students who lived in a small, rural Delta town and attended a high-performing charter school. Students in the study took a practice ACT examination, and item performance was analyzed to determine trends. Based on this analysis, curriculum suggestions included support for reading comprehension; instruction of question-answer relationships, questioning the author, and text structure; and intensive vocabulary support.