<p class="p1">Although the average ACT score for Louisiana’s public high school students has increased for four consecutive years, the state remains below the national average.</p><p class="p1">The ACT is based on what students learn in high school and provides personalized information about their strengths for education and career planning. The test measures how students perform in English, reading, math and science. The highest score possible is 36.</p><p class="p1">The Iowa group that administers the college readiness exam said the latest national average score among all states is 21. Louisiana, which started offering all high school students free access to the test in 2013, averaged a score of 19.5. That means Louisiana ranks 43rd nationwide.</p><p class="p1">Of the 17 states testing all of its graduates, Louisiana’s average composite score for all public and private school testers ranks in the top 10, outpacing Arkansas, Oklahoma, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi and Nevada.</p><p class="p1">The Louisiana Department of Education said the state’s ACT score has increased by 0.3, from 19.2 to 19.5 since 2014. In the same time, the national average ACT composite score for all students, including states that only test select populations, has remained flat at 21.</p><p class="p1">Louisiana’s steadily increasing score shows remarkable and consistent progress, state Superintendent John White said.</p><p class="p1">“The annual ACT report makes clear that Louisiana high school students and educators are achieving steady and significant gains in college and career readiness, especially when compared to other states where all students are required to take this exam,” White told the American Press. “Of those states that test 100 percent of students, Louisiana ranks among the top 10 nationwide and among the top three in the south.”</p><p class="p1">White said more than 25,700 Louisiana 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.</p><p class="p1">White said 15,406 students scored a 21 or above in 2017, an increase of 3,896 student since 2012.</p><p class="p1">In Calcasieu Parish, the numbers are even better with public schools earning an average score of 20 in 2017. Four high schools — Barbe, Sam Houston, Sulphur and Westlake — earned scores greater than 20. Barbe High’s average score was 21.5; Sam Houston, 20.9; Sulphur, 20.6; and Westlake, 20.2.</p>ACTMGN Online