New Study Points to Gap Between U.S. High School Curriculum and College Expectations

April 9, 2007

IOWA CITY, Iowa—A new study by ACT points to a gap between what U.S. high schools are teaching in their core college preparatory courses and what colleges want incoming students to know in order for them to succeed in first-year courses.

The findings of the study—a national curriculum survey completed by thousands of high school and college instructors across the country—suggest that colleges generally want all incoming students to attain in-depth understanding of a selected number of fundamental skills and knowledge in their high school courses, while high schools tend to provide less in-depth instruction of a broader range of skills and topics.

View the full ACT research report (ACT National Curriculum Survey, 2005–2006) and the companion policy implications report (Aligning Postsecondary Expectations and High School Practice: The Gap Defined).

Sign up for ACT Policy Alerts to receive automatic email notification when ACT issues new research reports.

ACT has been conducting surveys of this nature for roughly 30 years. Data from the organization's research has helped establish the most widely recognized definition of college readiness in the United States.

The problem identified by the ACT research lies more with the state education standards that high school teachers are required to follow than with the teachers themselves, according to Cynthia B. Schmeiser, president and chief operating officer of ACT's education division.

"State learning standards are often too wide and not deep enough," said Schmeiser. "They are trying to cover too much ground—more ground than colleges deem necessary—in the limited time they have with students. As a result, key academic skills needed for success in college get short shrift. This is a serious problem that states must address to better prepare our young people for success after high school."

College instructors take a dim view of the effectiveness of their state's learning standards. Nearly two-thirds (65%), overall, say their state standards prepare students "poorly" or "very poorly" for college-level work in their subject area. This is quite contrary to what high school teachers believe, with most saying their state standards prepare students "well" or "very well" for college coursework.

"There clearly is a significant gap between what high school teachers and college faculty expect of students," said Schmeiser. "State policymakers and education leaders must work to close this gap by taking a more integrated approach to education and aligning their learning standards with college requirements."

Differences between what high schools are teaching and what colleges want incoming students to know exist across the curriculum.

In mathematics, high school teachers tend to give advanced content greater importance than do college instructors. College instructors rate a rigorous understanding of math fundamentals as being more important than brief exposure to advanced content.
In science, high school teachers consistently rate knowledge of content (specific facts and information) as more important than an understanding of science process and inquiry skills. College instructors, in contrast, rate these skills in the opposite way—science process skills are more important for students to possess when they enter college, they say, than knowledge of specific content.
In English and writing, college instructors place more importance on basic grammar and usage skills than do high school teachers. Many college instructors express frustration that students who enter their classes often can't write a complete sentence, which forces them to re-teach these basic skills and interferes with their efforts to teach higher level skills.
In reading, high school and college instructors tend to agree on the relative importance of specific skills. However, instruction of reading skills diminishes in high school, suggesting the reading skills students have acquired in middle school/junior high are not being expanded or enriched in high school.

Some states, such as Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan, have already taken steps to improve the alignment of their learning standards with college expectations, Schmeiser acknowledged.

"There are a number of state initiatives underway that have taken a comprehensive approach to address the issue of misalignment," said Schmeiser. "We support and encourage those efforts, and we hope other states will follow suit."

ACT conducts its National Curriculum Survey every three to four years to determine what skills and knowledge postsecondary institutions expect of their entering students and how these expectations compare to what is being taught in high school core preparatory courses. The company uses the results to guide development of its educational assessments, including EXPLORE for 8th graders, PLAN for 10th graders, and the ACT college admission and placement exam, and to ensure that these assessments continue to measure college-ready skills.

A total of 6,568 surveys were completed nationally by instructors of middle school, high school, first-year college, and college remedial courses across the country. The surveys covered various subject areas, including English, writing, math, science, social studies, and reading.

Respondents were provided a list of specific topics and skills in their content area and asked to rate how important each is for students to learn and know. Secondary teachers were also asked if they teach each topic/skill in their classes.