this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2023
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ACT test scores fall to lowest levels in 32 years (www.axios.com)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Interestingly, the scores have been in free fall since the pandemic started and cannot be explained by learning loss from lockdowns as the effects are observed even after in school learning has resumed.

One possible explanation is cognitive loss due to covid infections:

https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/severe-covid-infection-may-lead-to-noticeable-cognitive-loss#:~:text=The%20COVID%20survivors%2C%20especially%20those,be%20about%2010%20IQ%20points

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Two points:

  1. IQ is a bad measurement in the first place.
  2. Have they considered less people taking the ACT? Many people don’t have any reason to take it. Do the SAT for comparison.
[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

ACT is not an IQ test though. IQ tests test logic, reasoning, and other metrics. The ACT is a strictly educational test with only minor reasoning portions.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Right, but what about who is taking the test?

If the distribution of test takers is skewed, that could influence numbers like average result…

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Not many, and mostly those who view the test highly and prepare for it, as it costs a lot of money. There were more students that took it in 2022 as opposed to 2021 (36% vs 35%), but this is down nearly 12% from 2012 when 48% of students took it.

This is not an issue of applicant pool dilution.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

IQ measurement has lots of well known problems, but it does provide a baseline. If people are having more difficulty doing the same kind of reasoning before and after covid, that's not a good sign. Meanwhile, the performance is out of students who took the test, it's not measuring whether more or less people took it. I guess we'll see if this is also reflected in SAT tests.