High school seniors in Georgia scored about the same on the ACT test before they graduated last spring as the class before them.
The average composite score for the class of 2019 stood unchanged at 21.4.
One thing that did change: the percentage of students who took the test. It dropped four points, to 49%.
The ACT had been gaining on the more popular SAT but lost momentum. In the class of 2018, 53% took the test.
That mirrored a decline in popularity nationally, where 55% of the class of 2018 took it but 52% of the class of 2019 did.
Georgia maintained its lead nationally, again beating the national composite average score, which dropped a tenth of a point to 20.7.
How metro Atlanta students scored:
The state’s relatively high score is likely due in part to the lower test participation rate, since scores tend to drop as more students are tested. This year, ACT recommended only comparing scores between states with the same testing rate.
Rhode Island, for instance, had the highest score — 24.7 — but with a 12% testing rate. Mississippi had the lowest score at 18.4, but a 100% testing rate. In Minnesota, where 95% took the test, the average score was the same as Georgia’s.
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