The Minnesota Department of Education announced Wednesday that almost all of the 2016 graduating class took the ACT in their junior or senior year.
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That’s the lowest among the 18 states that try to test all high school students before they graduate, as well as among states where fewer take the test and scores trend higher.
This year’s graduates had a composite score of 18.9 on the college-entrance exam, a drop of nearly a point from the previous year’s 19.8 and three points lower than the Class of 2012, which recorded a composite score of 21.9.
“We are proud to see that once again, MA students had the highest ACT scores in the nation”, Governor Charlie Baker said in the statement.
The average composite ACT score for the Missouri class of 2016 was 20.2, compared with the national composite score of 20.8. That’s down from 22 in 2015, but above the 2016 averages of 21.9 in South Dakota, as well as the Iowa average of 22.1 and the Nebraska average of 21.4, Superintendent Jerry Rasmussen noted. Arizona State University is the out-of-state school that received the most scores from Utah students. Kansas landed an average composite score of 21.9, which was unchanged from last year’s score.
Hopkinsville High School saw gains in all four subjects (English, mathematics, reading and science) and tied with the state’s average score. The composite score of all four tests dropped just two-tenths of a point. The benchmark score for social science was 22, therefore 58 percent of Stockton High School students hit or surpassed that score.
Statewide test-takers also demonstrated improvement on the ACT, officials stated in this week’s scores announcement.
A number of additional states also are giving the ACT to all of their 11th-grade students.
Reaching three of more benchmarks indicates a strong readiness for college course work. The national standardized test is the most-used college entrance exam in the country. Last year, about 40 percent of students met that benchmark.
“By getting through this process, by taking the ACT, students have one of those keys to get them into college”, Murley said. But the state board of education continued to pay for the exam in 2015, and the 2016 average continued to have 100 percent participation.
The goal at CHS is for students to attain a composite score of 22.
Wyoming state law requires all students to take the ACT as juniors.
In 2015, KCS students averaged a 20.7 score and 24 percent had college-ready test scores.
Twenty-eight percent of tested 2016 Nebraska graduates met all four benchmarks, compared to 26 percent for the nation.
Florida has seen an increase in the number of students taking the ACT.
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Forty-nine percent of white test-takers met the three-or-more benchmark, compared with 11 percent of African-Americans and 23 percent of Hispanic test-takers.
