BHS’s ACT scores remain above state average
By Ed Nadolski
Editor in chief
Scores posted by Burlington High School students last school year on a popular college admissions test remained essentially steady for the fifth time in six years.
According to information released recently by the state Department of Public Instruction, 2011-12 BHS seniors who took the ACT test posted an average composite score of 22.3, which is just above the state average and in the middle of the pack among the scores registered by seniors at the seven other schools in the Southern Lakes Conference.
And while those scores offer few reasons to rejoice or be concerned, BASD Assistant Superintendent for Instructional Services Connie Zinnen said it indicates local students are keeping pace with their peers in the area and the state.
Nationally, Wisconsin students continue to lead the way along with border states Minnesota and Iowa. Minnesota students ranked first nationally in ACT scores for the past year with an average of 22.8 while Wisconsin and Iowa tied for second at 22.1, according to the DPI.
Burlington High School’s ACT scores have averaged between 22.2 and 22.4 for all but one year – 2009-10 when it was 21.8 – since the 2006-07 school year.
Zinnen said changes within two tenths of a percent are not usually considered significant, meaning Burlington’s results have been extremely steady.
And while steady scores are better than declining scores, Zinnen said she is hopeful changes in the class scheduling format at BHS this year will help students boost those results in the future.
For this school year, BHS reverted to a traditional seven-period day from an eight-period block schedule.
The rationale, Zinnen said, is to eliminate gaps in instruction that are inherent in the block scheduling format. For instance, she said, a student taking a first semester math class under that format may not have a subsequent math class until second semester of the following school year, which creates a gap of a full year.
The seven-period schedule is better for eliminating those gaps and, in theory, should improve knowledge retention, Zinnen said, noting that consistency is the key in many subject areas.
She also said the district’s increased use of the ACT-based Explore and Plan tests for eighth and 10th graders, respectively, should pay off in future years.
“Both (tests) are pretty good indicators of how students will perform on the ACT,” Zinnen said.
Based on those results, she added, parents, teachers and students can adjust course schedules to address weaknesses with an eye toward improving overall performance on the ACT.
The ACT measures student proficiency college-bound students in reading, English, math and science. Last year’s Burlington High School seniors exceed the state averages in all four areas. Measured against the previous year’s class, last year’s seniors saw their average scores improve for math and science and decline for reading and English. The composite score across the four subject areas is 22.3 for the 2011-12 seniors and 22.4 for the 2010-11 seniors.
Conference results
However, when measured against the other schools in the Southern Lakes Conference, Burlington still has room for improvement.
According to the recent scores, BHS’s composite average ranks fifth among the eight schools in the conference.
They are: 1, Lake Geneva Badger 23.0; 2, (tie) Westosha Central and Union Grove 22.7; 4, Waterford 22.6; 5, Burlington 22.3; 6, Wilmot 21.7; 7, Delavan-Darien 21.3; 8, Elkhorn 20.9.
Zinnen said the ACT provides a good comparison of each district’s top performing students.
“We’re right in there,” she said. “But we’d certainly like to get better.”
While individual improvement is the goal, Burlington’s push to have more students – even those who aren’t necessarily college-bound – take the ACT, could hold back it’s average score.
Burlington had the third-highest percentage of seniors (58 percent) take the ACT in the conference, behind Waterford (69 percent) and Westosha (60 percent).
“We’d really like to have more kids take it because it’s a good measure of career readiness,” Zinnen said. “If we were just looking for the (higher) numbers we’d only want to test the elite – and we don’t want that.
“It’s about helping kids be ready for what lies beyond high school.”
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