Average scores on the ACT college entrance exam rose for the first time in seven years, with the high school class of 2004 improving modestly across all subjects and most ethnic groups.
The nationwide average composite score rose 0.1 points to 20.9, on a scale from 1 to 36, after two years at 20.8. However, that remains below the average of score of 21.0 recorded by every graduating class from 1997 to 2001.
Nationally, test administrators said the ACT increase was significant, given that a growing number of students who do not plan to attend college are taking the test and likely weighing down average scores. In Illinois and Colorado, the exam is taken by all students under a state-mandated program.
But the latest figures, to be released today, also reveal no progress in two key, related areas: the number of students taking a core, college-prep curriculum, and the number scoring high enough on the ACT to indicate they will succeed in higher education.
The ACT test was taken by 40 percent of 2004 high school graduates, or about 1.2 million people nationwide. More students take the SAT, but the ACT is the predominant college admissions test in about half of the states and is accepted by most colleges.
Blacks again posted the lowest average scores of any ethnic group but saw their average scores increase 0.2 points to 17.1. Hispanics, steady at 18.5, were the only major ethnic group not to report an increase, though the number of Hispanic test-takers grew by 4 percent, the most of any ethnic group.
The latest results also showed the narrowest gap ever between male and female test-takers. Boys scored on average 21.0, the same as last year, while girls averaged 20.9, up 0.1.
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