Missouri high school seniors beat the national average in all subjects on this year’s ACT.
Sarah Potter
“We held very steady at 21.6 from about 2005 to 2013. This year, we had a 21.7,” said Sarah Potter with the Department of Education. “We are happy to see a slight uptick. It’s still higher than the national average of 21.”
Potter said 71% of Missouri senior meth the benchmark in English, 51% in reading, 44% in math, and 42% in science; the area in which they scored the most poorly.
She said English continues to be the strongest subject for Missouri’s seniors.
“That really falls in line with what we are seeing on other assessments,” said Potter.
Photo courtesy of the Missouri Department of Education
The best score possible on the ACT is a 36. Potter says even though Missouri seniors beat the national average, there’s still work to be done to move that average closer to 36.
“College career readiness is one of the major things we are focused on here at the Department of Education and across the state,” said Potter. “We have an initiative called ‘The Top 10 by 20 Initiative’. We want to be a top 10 state for education by 2020.”
Potter says more than 49,000 seniors in Missouri took the exam this year, an increase of 2% from last year. She says juniors will get the chance next year to take the test.
