The Condition of STEM 2014. National

ACT has been a leader in measuring college and career readiness trends since 1959. Each August, they release "The Condition of College & Career Readiness" (www.act.org/newsroom/data/2014), their annual report on the progress of the ACT-tested graduating class relative to college readiness. Nationally, 57% of the 2014 graduating class took the ACT® college readiness assessment. The continued increase of test takers enhances the breadth and depth of the 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 national educational and STEM pipeline. It also allows the review of various aspects of the ACT-tested 2014 graduating class. This report reviews the graduating class in the context of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics)-related fields. ACT is uniquely positioned to deliver this report for two key reasons. First is our commitment to science by the inclusion of subject-level science tests in our assessments. Second is our research-based measure of interests, the ACT Interest Inventory, which is delivered with the ACT and determines inherent interest in occupations and majors. With the inventory, we can determine student interest levels in specific STEM fields and, more importantly, readiness in math and science among students interested in STEM careers. The report breaks the graduating class into three STEM-related cohorts: (1) Students who have an expressed and measured interest in STEM; (2) Students who have an expressed interest only--those who chose a major or occupation (out of the 294 listed in the Standard Profile Section of the ACT) that corresponds with STEM fields; and (3) Students who have a measured interest only--those who indicated STEM interest on the ACT Interest Inventory.