The headline and the first paragraph of your article New class has better test scores
but diversity still short of goal in last week's Summer Post about the incoming class are a bit misleading and are inconsistent with the second paragraph.
The headline and article suggest a stronger incoming class but the statement is based on a small rise in the ACT scores of those admitted this year.
However, the incoming class is only a small percentage of those admitted; maybe only 40 percent of the larger group. Hence, one cannot infer from these numbers that there has been an increase in the ACT scores of those attending OU.
Long-term trends of those attending OU would be more meaningful than the small differences between those admitted from one year to the next.
However, those would only be reported if they serve good public relations for the administration. I do not know about ACT or SAT scores, but placement in Mathematics courses of incoming students has declined steadily over the last seven or eight years (i.e. more students placed in remedial courses and fewer in Calculus). I only hope the administration be more forthright and transparent and also that The Post does a better job of reporting.Tom Wolf is a professor in the Department of Mathematics
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