VIRGINIA – Virginia high school seniors have outscored students in other states on the ACT this year as the number of students taking the exam continues to grow.
The Virginia Department of Education says the assessed content area in 2016 was 15 points or higher than the nationwide percentages.
“Thanks to effective teachers focused on high state standards and supported by strong division leadership, Virginia graduates continue to surpass national college-readiness benchmarks,” said Superintendent of Public Instruction Steven R. Staples. “With increasing ACT participation among Virginia graduates, we are better able to use these measurements to predict how successful our young people will be for their first year of college.”
Public, private and homeschooled Virginia graduates had a composite score of 23.3 on the ACT, compared to 20.8 graduates nationwide. A total of 21,824 Virginia 2016 public school graduates took the ACT. Forty-five of the 55 Virginia graduates who achieved perfect scores on the test were from public schools.
“We are most appreciative of the efforts of local boards, school leaders and teachers to embrace the importance of preparing students to be college and career ready. Continued student gains on the ACT reflect the collective commitment of key state and local partners to prepare each graduate for success beyond high school,” said State Board President, Billy K. Cannaday Jr.
