The Condition of STEM 2015

Posted by ACT on November 23, 2015

ACT has been a leader in measuring college and career readiness trends since 1959. Each August, we release The Condition of College & Career Readiness (www.act.org/newsroom/data/2015), our annual report on the progress of the ACT-tested graduating class relative to college readiness. Nationally, a record 59% of the 2015 graduating class took the ACT® test. The continued increase in the number of ACT test takers enhances the breadth and depth of our data pool, providing a comprehensive picture of the current college readiness levels of the graduating class as well as offering a glimpse of the emerging general and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) education pipeline in the United States.
It also allows us to review various aspects of the ACT‑tested 2015 graduating class.

This report reviews the graduating class in the context of STEM-related fields. ACT is uniquely positioned to deliver this report for two key reasons. First is our commitment to science through the inclusion of science tests in our assessments. ACT leadership is unmatched in providing a definitive assessment in the science area. Second is the research-based ACT Interest Inventory, which is delivered with the ACT and measures students’ interest in a wide range of educational and occupational fields.

With the ACT Interest Inventory, we can determine interest levels (both expressed and measured) in specific STEM
fields and, more importantly, college readiness in math and science among STEM-interested students. Students with
an expressed interest are those who chose a major or occupation (out of the 294 possibilities listed in the Student Profile Section of the ACT1) that corresponds with STEM fields. Students are designated to have a measured interest when their responses to the ACT Interest Inventory items result in high science and technology interest scores.2

http://www.act.org/stemcondition/15/