http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/08/17/act.scores.ap/index.html Notable: "The ACT includes English, math, reading and science sections, and next year will add an optional essay. Because it aims to measure mastery of a high school curriculum rather than general intelligence, some believe it is less "coachable" than the SAT"
I always feel the need to voice my opinion of these standardized tests before talking about them... but the truth is, the teachers don't have a choice, and a lot of times, our jobs depend on the scores. ACT scores in Illinois are up. We're pretty happy that they're up at our school. We had an abysmal score of 14.8 coming into last year. That was well below the Chicago average. And the Chicago average is always well below the Illinois average. We're up over 16 now... so that's a serious improvement. So we're happy. In truth, English may be a bit more coachable than most subjects. It's pretty much skills-based, so if they recognize what they're supposed to do and what goes where... we're doing ok.