August 13, 2008

NEBRASKA HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES OUTSCORE PEERS ON ACT EXAM

Nearly three of every four Nebraska high school graduates took the ACT college entrance exam and, on average, they continued to outscore their peers nationally, according to ACT scores released today.

Nebraska graduates scored 22.1 on average compared to the national average of 21.1, continuing the state’s long-held tradition of scoring higher than the national ACT average.

Seventy-two percent of the Nebraska 2008 graduating class took the ACT exam, compared to 77 percent the previous year. While 436 more graduates took the ACT in 2008, the percentage of graduates taking the exam dropped. According to ACT officials, the 2008 Nebraska graduating class was the state’s largest with 22,929 students.

Nebraska’s 22.1 average score continues to rank first among those states with 70 percent or more graduates taking the ACT.

Highlights of this year’s ACT results show:

Nebraska’s average score has increased to 22.1 from 21.7 over the past five years.
Five-year trend data showed an increase in the scores of student groups by race and ethnicity for all groups other than black graduates:

Graduate Groups	2004	2008
All Students	21.7	22.1
African American/Black	17.7	17.5
American Indian/Alaska Native	18.7	19.1
Caucasian American/White	22.0	22.5
Hispanic	18.7	19.5
Asian American/Pacific Islander	21.5	22.9
Other/No response	21.4	21.8

Scores for graduates taking their high school’s core curriculum or more averaged 22.8 compared to 20.1 for those taking less than the core curriculum.
77 percent of Nebraska graduates tested ready for college level English courses compared to 68 percent nationally.
49 percent of Nebraska graduates tested ready for college level algebra compared to 43 percent nationally.
60 percent of Nebraska graduates tested college-ready for social science courses compared to 53 percent nationally.

The full ACT report is available at www.act.org.