ACT scores released for Missouri students

(From the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education)

More than 68,000 members of the Missouri graduating class of 2018 took the ACT as 11th graders and earned an average composite score of 20. Nationally, 55 percent of the class of 2018 took the ACT, with a composite score of 20.8.

Missouri was among 17 states in which 100 percent of the graduating class took the ACT. The state composite score of 20 was the sixth highest among those states, tying with Montana and Wyoming. These results are from the final state-paid census testing.



It is important to note that nearly half of the Missouri class of 2018 took the ACT more than once. ACT reports the most recent score rather than the highest score. Missouri uses a student’s highest score in its college and career readiness measures for accountability. More than 34,000 graduates in 2018 took the ACT two or more times for an average composite score of 22.6, compared to an average of 17.6 for graduates who took the test only once.

Here are Missouri average composite scores as calculated by ACT in every subject:

English – 19.5
Math – 19.7
Reading – 20.5
Science – 20.0

Twenty-three percent of the Missouri class of 2018 met all four ACT college readiness benchmarks. In math, 33 percent of the graduates met the college readiness benchmark, and 56 percent of Missouri graduates met the English benchmark. In 2018, 41 percent of Missouri graduates met the ACT Reading benchmark.

Students who took more advanced coursework in math and English demonstrated markedly higher average scores than those who did not. Sixty-five percent of students who took at least four years of English met the benchmark, compared with 35 percent of students who took less than four years of English. In math, 41 percent of students who took three or more years of math classes met the benchmark, compared with 4 percent who took less than three years of math. Interestingly, 47 percent of students who took three or more years of social studies met the reading benchmark, in contrast with 31 percent of students who took less than three years of social studies.

Missouri uses the ACT as one measure of college and career readiness in its continuing effort to ensure that all Missouri students graduate from high school ready to succeed in college or the workplace.