Mississippi's ACT Scores Fall Below National Average Again

Mississippi’s ACT college exam scores have once again fallen below the national average. MPB’s Phoebe Judge reports.

The ACT college entrance examination tests high school seniors in the areas of reading, english, math and science. 93% of all Mississippi high school seniors took the test this year, an increase from 2008. The average composite score in the state was 18.9, well below the national average of 21.1. That gives Mississippi the lowest average score in the country. But IHL Commissioner, and former state education superintendent Hank Bounds says it isn’t fair to compare Mississippi to the rest of the country,

“If 95 percent of our students take the ACT it’s hard to compare that with a state where their top 15 percent take the ACT. So you can’t really make a comparison between states.”

The 2009 ACT results show that only ten percent of those Mississippi high school seniors who took the exam are college ready, the national average is 23%. That number is up slightly from last year’s 9 percent, and Commissioner Bounds says while the increase isn’t great it is still forward progress,

“We are not nearly where we need to be but thank goodness we have done some things in the K-12 world that have really upgraded what is happening in the curriculum, and over time I think we are going to see some really good progress.”

While college readiness has made a slight increase in the state, Mississippi’s ACT average composite score has remained at 18.9 for the past three years.