Eight Eden Prairie High School (EPHS) seniors have been recognized for achieving perfect scores of 36 on the American College Testing (ACT) college readiness exam.
In a Parent Post email to families, EP Schools said, “We are immensely proud of 12th graders Sasha Allen, Rohil Garg, Neha Karri, Madeline Kaufman, Siona Kaura, Nikhil Kori, Kate Ropchak, and Lisa Thayil for earning scores in the top 0.25% of all test takers nationwide.
“These amazing scores are a testament to the hard work and dedication of these students, as well as the efforts of their incredible families who have encouraged and supported them along the way.”
The ACT is a curriculum-based, pre-college achievement exam designed to measure what students have learned in school.
A composite score is calculated by averaging a student’s scores on four tests: English, mathematics, reading, and science. Each test is scored on a scale of 1 to 36. The ACT also has an optional writing test, but this is reported separately and not included in the composite score.
ACT scores at a 30-year low, but Minnesota outperforms national average
National ACT scores fell to a 30-year low last year, according to the College Board, the nonprofit organization that administers the tests.
The average composite score on the ACT test was 19.5 for the graduating class of 2023, a decline of 0.3% from 2022, which also marked the sixth consecutive year of decline. Average scores in mathematics, reading, and science subjects were all below the ACT College Readiness Benchmarks for those subjects.
The class of 2023 was partway through freshman year of high school when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020. Nationally, the proportion of “COVID cohort” seniors meeting none of the ACT College Readiness Benchmarks reached historic highs in 2023, the College Board said. Learn more here.
However, Minnesota students outperformed the national trend, with an average composite ACT score of 20.8, more than a full point higher than the national average composite score of 19.5, according to the Minnesota Department of Education.
Minnesota’s composite average score was down 0.2% from 2022, compared with a decline in the national composite score average decline of 0.3%.
Sixty-eight percent of the 2023 graduating class took the ACT in Minnesota, and among states that tested more than 60% of their 2023 graduates, Minnesota’s composite score was the highest in the nation.
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