Georgia students showed marked improvement on the ACT in 2016, according to numbers released Wednesday morning by the Georgia Department of Education.
The national average on the college-readiness decreased this year; also, the number of Georgia students taking the ACT went up.
Georgia’s average composite score of 21.1 was higher, for the first time in state history, than the national average of 20.8. Georgia outperformed the nation in English, reading, and science as well, and scored the same as the national average in mathematics.
A press release from the GDoE said Georgia’s ACT rank has continued to improve relative to other states - this year, Georgia students outperformed 26 other states and tied with one. That’s an increase from 2015, when Georgia ranked 28th in the nation, and 2014, when it ranked 30th.
“Georgia students are outpacing the nation on the ACT, even as more of our high schoolers take the test,” State School Superintendent Richard Woods said.
“This reaffirms one of the core goals of our strategic plan, to increase the percentage of high school graduates who are college and/or career ready. It is also a testament to the hard work of our students and teachers, and to the collaborative efforts that are advancing child-centered, classroom-focused policies in the state of Georgia. Conventional wisdom holds that as more students take a test like the ACT, scores will go down – but our Georgia students proved that’s not always the case. I’m immensely proud of them all.”
Georgia had 58,073 ACT test takers in 2016, compared to 54,653 in the graduating class of 2015 – a 5.9 percent increase. Since 2012, the number of ACT test takers has increased by more than 10,000 students, from 47,169 in 2012 to 58,072 in 2016.
Georgia students’ average composite score rose from 21 in 2015 to 21.1 in 2016, with most subject area scores increasing as well: from 20.6 to 20.7 in English, 21.6 to 21.8 in reading, and 20.9 to 21 in science. The score for mathematics held steady at 20.6.
Locally, Gainesville High School had 145 test takers who achieved an average score of 19.9. The school system said the score was slightly higher than the 2015 score.
The Hall County School System had a total of 645 test takers, according to the State DOE. The composite average score was 20.8 up from 20.4 in 2015. The highest school average was from Flowery Branch High School - 154 test takers scored an average of 21.7 on the ACT.
For a link to individual school scores, follow this link.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2016/8/438004/georgia-students-score-higher-on-act-in-2016