Wanda Martin represents Alaska at ACT annual meeting

Submitted by Carla Browning
Phone: (907) 474-7778
11/05/04

Wanda Martin, the associate dean for enrollment management at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, represented the state ofAlaska at the annual meeting of ACT, Inc. in Iowa City, Iowa on Oct. 20-21.

Martin was appointed by Mark Hamilton, President of the University of Alaska, to serve as a liaison to ACT, Inc. and to advise the company about educational concerns in the state.

Speakers at the annual meeting included former Secretary of Education Richard Riley and Kati Haycock, director of The Education Trust.

One of the main educational messages of the meeting was the need to strengthen curriculum so that high school graduates are ready for collegeand the workplace. Among the graduates in the high school class of 2004, only 26 percent of ACT-tested graduates were ready for college-level Biology, only 40 percent were ready for college-level Algebra, and 68 percent were ready for Freshman English Composition.

This issue is important to businesses as well, because the skills needed for the first year of college are the same skills students need to be successful in the workplace. Many adults who seek job training for promotions aren’t able to participate successfully in training courses because they lack the foundational skills.