NE High Schoolers Score Above Average on ACT

Students scored an average of 22; the national average is 21.1

By Ashlee Pitzl

CREATED 2:50 PM

NEBRASKA (AP) - Nebraska high school students are still outscoring their peers nationally on the ACT college entrance exam, even though the results slipped from last year.

           

A report released Wednesday shows Nebraska students who graduated this year outpaced the national average in English, reading, mathematics and science.

 

Nebraska students scored an average of 22 on the test. The national average is 21.1. The highest possible ACT score is 36.

 

Nationally, average scores held steady for the class of 2012, but there has been modest progress in math and science.

           

The ACT scores being released Wednesday cover the first-ever class in which more than half of high school graduates nationally took the tests -- some 60 percent of students in 26 states.

Nebraska students outpaced that number.  Seventy-eight percent of students took the test. Nebraska was one of 18 states with a participation rate higher than 75 percent.

           

Nationally, the number of students ready for college in all four core subjects was unchanged at 25 percent. 

           

But the science readiness figure rose from 28 to 31 percent, while the math figure went up from 42 to 46 percent.