The average ACT score for Louisiana’s public high school students has increased for the fourth consecutive year — a “remarkable and consistent progress,” state Superintendent John White said Wednesday.

White, speaking to journalists via conference call, said the state average on the college entrance exam increased from 19.1 in 2013 — when BESE starting offering all high school students free access to the ACT — to 19.6 in 2017.

He said the increase proves “when you raise expectations for student achievement and for student learning, our students will do tremendous things and will achieve great progress in their lives.”

White said more than 25,700 students in the class of 2017 earned a score of 18 or higher. In the class of 2012, 18,307 graduates scored at that level, an increase of 7,397 students over the last five years.

“This progress has been felt across subgrouping of students, including African-American students in the state whose progress has improved from a 17.1 to a 17.5, now beating the national average for African-American students significantly — which is at a 17,” he said. 

White said the results indicate that those students will be able to go on to community college or enter a university without having to retake high school courses. 

White said 15,406 students scored a 21 or above — an increase of 3,896 students since 2012.

He also said nearly 8,700 more graduates in the class of 2017 earned TOPS-qualifying ACT scores than did in 2012.

“That means more students pursuing workforce training opportunities, more students going to community college and more students going to universities in ways that are affordable that allow them to not have to take on debt as they make their way through their education,” he said. 

White said the state has rallied around its students over the last five years, creating a robust community of technical education and a high-achieving system of advanced placement and dual-enrollment courses.

“We’ve opened the doors of opportunity for them by allowing all of them a shot at financial aid in college and a chance to take community college and university admission tests,” he said. “That work was never easy; it was at times even controversial. But it has yielded extraordinary benefits for tens of thousands of Louisiana young people without question.”

White said the ACT news was another in a series of “momentous announcements” over the course of the summer and over the past several years: Louisiana’s 2016 high school graduation rate climbed to 77 percent; more than 6,500 high school students earned college credit on Advanced Placement exams; and Louisiana is leading the nation in the College Level Examination Program.

But he said the state should not be content with the results. 

“On one hand, we should be very proud of the progress we have made,” he said. “But on the other hand we should acknowledge we have a long way to go.” 

Special to the American Press