ACT scores reach their lowest level in decades

The average ACT score for high school seniors fell for the fifth straight year to its lowest level in over three decades, per new data published yesterday by ACT Inc., which administers the test.

🎓 A deeper dive… More than 1.3 million students from the Class of 2022 took the ACT, equal to ~36% of all US graduates. The average score came in at 19.8 (out of a possible 36) – down from 20.3 the previous year, and the first sub-20 average since 1991.

• 42% of students who took the test failed to meet any of the ACT’s four subject benchmarks, aka the minimum scores required for “​​a reasonable chance of success” in typical first-year college courses (up from 38% last year).
• 22% of students met all four benchmarks, down from 25% last year.

📸 Big picture: In a press release, ACT CEO Janet Godwin said the decline in test scores aren’t simply a byproduct of the pandemic. She attributed the trend to unspecified “longtime systemic failures” that became exacerbated when Covid shut down in-person schooling.

The overall number of students taking the ACT has declined 30% since 2018, which the AP reports is due to fewer high school graduates attending college, and fewer universities requiring the test for admission.