Key Findings from the National Condition of STEM 2016 Report
• Students with an interest in STEM continue to show higher levels of college readiness than ACT-tested students as a whole.
• Approximately half of ACT-tested US graduates in the class of 2016 have expressed interest in STEM majors and careers. The level of interest has stayed steady over the last five years.
• Average ACT math scores have stayed flat between 2012 and 2016 for students meeting the ACT STEM Benchmark. In contrast, the average ACT science score has gone up among those meeting the ACT STEM Benchmark over the same timeframe. The scores steadily increased from 27.9 to 28.6 since 2012 (see Table 1.6 of the 2016 national ACT profile report at: www.act.org/research/np16).
• Over 1 million ACT-tested students demonstrated an interest in STEM in the 2016 graduating class.
• Only 1,258 students out of the nearly 2.1 million tested students—less than 1% of the total—had an expressed and measured interest in teaching math or science.
• Students demonstrating only one type of STEM interest, either expressed or measured, fall far short in terms of benchmark attainment and preparedness for STEM majors and careers when compared to peers who have both expressed and measured interest.
• Underserved learners have a high interest in STEM, but ACT STEM Benchmark attainment lags far behind their peers, especially for those students with more than one of the underserved characteristics used in this report. Go to the report
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