Updated: 11 hours ago
St. Louis will always be a second home for me. I lived in the city for three years. During my time, I worked at a private school for two years and at a public school for one year. The pandemic inspired my current work with We Go To College, where I host workshops for community-based organizations and high schools and help them create, build, or refine their college counseling programs. That work started with two Upward Bound programs at Harris-Stowe State University and St. Louis Community College – Forest Park. The work with these programs was so rewarding and fulfilling. But while living in St. Louis, I saw the great chokehold testing had on the city and how limiting financial aid could be.
When I started working at that private school, my mind was blown by how many students had extra time accommodations for the ACT. Before and after working at that school, I could count the students who had extra-time accommodations on one hand. When the new testing coordinator at that school came in, I brought up the concerning number of students receiving extra time on the ACT and the fact that families seemed to be going to a single doctor to obtain that accommodation. Thankfully, she created a system that focused on students who had shown signs of needing extra time throughout their school years. Seven years later, I now see a major news outlet reporting on this issue. As someone with ADHD who needs to give himself extra time to complete things and witnessing how personnel to administer exams that aren’t a part of the school can be limiting, I think it is so important that high schools focus on students who actually need extra time and other accommodations to be a successful student (and hopefully have the tools to adapt to having a career or being brave enough to seek accommodations at work).
But I understand why families seek any “advantage” for their child, given how high-stakes college admissions feels. While news outlets make it seem as though families only care about their children getting into selective schools, most parents at that private St. Louis school were hyper-focused on merit scholarships. This was really interesting to me because I didn’t know about merit aid before. Considering that most of the students I worked with came from low-income backgrounds, the focus was on need-based aid. I’ll never forget when every school went test optional because students couldn't test safely during the pandemic, and a student was extremely worried she wouldn’t get any merit aid because of her ACT score. Thankfully, the colleges she was considering were test optional for merit scholarships as well. The fear of college debt can drive people to stretch the margins to get an extra thousand or three from the state (mind-boggling that state grants are awarded based on high test scores; the imbalance between the qualifying SAT and ACT scores is interesting).
For the common St. Louis student, the fear of college debt drives them straight into employment. Over 42% of public high school graduates in St. Louis enter the workforce, compared with almost 30% statewide. When I learned how limited the debt-free options were for St. Louis students, I saw why they chose to work rather than enroll in a four-year (over 35%) or two-year school (over 11%). While low-income NYC public school students can attend 11 four-year colleges they commute to and graduate debt-free from (thanks to the Pell Grant and the state’s need-based grant), low-income St. Louis public school students have only one option: Harris-Stowe State University, given the max Pell Grant and Missouri’s need-based grant. To attend University of Missouri-St. Louis and commute, low-income students would have to take out close to the maximum amount of Federal Student Loans to cover tuition because the Pell Grant and Missouri’s need-based grant aren’t enough. While I don’t see anything wrong with students taking out only Federal Student Loans to invest in their education, a good portion of St. Louis Public School students might not know how a college degree could help them achieve upward mobility.
While working at a St. Louis public high school, I quickly learned I didn’t have the time or funding to host college trips. But we did have time and funding to host the ACT during a school day. While I'm not a stranger to school-day testing, it was so shocking to do a massive amount of testing in a school’s gym. During that time, I learned that the guaranteed funding from school districts was key to ACT. Inc (and College Board). A recent article about a scoring issue with ACT School Day prompted me to submit a Freedom of Information Law request to Saint Louis Public Schools to determine the cost of their ACT School Day.
From 2015 to 2017, Missouri covered the cost for ACT School Day for every junior in the state. After that, it was up to individual districts to cover the cost. While St. Louis is a major city, the school district is much smaller than New York City Public Schools. Every student is on free or reduced lunch. Black students make up the majority of the enrollment at almost 75%. 71% of those students graduate from high school in four years. As mentioned earlier, graduates are more likely to enter the workforce than enroll in a four-year or two-year college. About 23% of people who live in the city have a Bachelor’s Degree. The College Board recently released a report showing that the higher someone's education, the more they are likely to earn. The median household income for Black people in the city is almost $43,000. The income is below the living wage for a single person. If they have a family of six, they would be below the poverty line.
After submitting a Freedom of Information Law request to Saint Louis Public Schools regarding payments to ACT Inc. for ACT School Day from 2019 to 2023, I learned that the district pays $75,000 per year. In 2019, they paid $70,000. In 2020, they paid $95,000. While the other purchase orders have 2025 dates, I assume they were late payments for $75,000 in 2021, 2022, and 2023. Currently, there are fewer than 1,200 juniors in the district. The per-student cost for ACT School Day is just under $65, about $5 off the Saturday administration. The district's average ACT score is 15.9. That is below the 25th percentile for every four-year school in the city, except one that considers test scores in admissions. With the one school, the district’s average ACT score is below the median.
Let’s take a closer look at these local four-year schools:
Harris-Stowe State University (as per conversation with the Assistant Director of Recruitment)
It was Open Admission until Fall 2020. Now, they have an acceptance rate of around 80%.
Average ACT score: 19
Only around 45% of enrolled students submitted their ACT scores.
Acceptance rate: 86%
25th to 75th percentile of ACT Composite Score: 18-25
Only 22% of enrolled students submitted their ACT scores.
Acceptance rate: 57%
25th to 75th percentile of ACT Composite Score: 22-28
Only 6% of enrolled students submitted their ACT scores.
Acceptance rate: 95%
Test Free
Acceptance rate: 75%
25th to 75th percentile of ACT Composite Score: 25-31
WOnly 36% of enrolled students submitted their ACT scores.
Acceptance rate: 63%
25th to 75th percentile of ACT Composite Score: 19-27
Only 26% of enrolled students submitted their ACT scores.
Acceptance rate: 69%
25th to 75th percentile of ACT Composite Score: 12-18
Only 4% of enrolled students submitted their ACT scores.
Acceptance rate: 12%
25th to 75th percentile of ACT Composite Score: 33-35
Only 28% of enrolled students submitted their ACT scores.
Considering this and the ACT submission rates for these schools, I think the $75,000 a year Saint Louis Public Schools gives to ACT Inc. for in-school testing could be better used for college trips. In my experience, when a student sees a college, they are likely to be inspired by the environment. With 11 high schools, each could offer at least three local trips to four-year colleges, helping students make informed, financially sound decisions about their lives after high school. Saint Louis Public School students deserve to see themselves on a college campus and know the power of a college degree in racially transforming their lives and their families.
