Reading on the ACT College Entrance Exam: What can we learn from students' practice test performance?
Matthews, Rachel
:
2010
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.