A commission set up to establish goals for the University of Arkansas has recommended that all high school juniors in the state be given the ACT college-admissions test.
The report points out that fewer than 20 percent of the state’s African-American and Hispanic high school juniors took the test in 2003.
Though Arkansas ranks 49th in the country in the percentage of residents who have a college degree, court-ordered changes in the public schools are expected to increase the number of college-bound students, and Arkansas’ universities need to be prepared, the report argues.
The 2010 Commission, which was formed in 2000 by John A. White, the chancellor of the university’s Fayetteville campus, wrote the report. Available on the Web at http://chancellor.uark.edu, the report also recommends raising state aid for higher education and increasing racial and ethnic diversity on campuses.
