Nevada students score well on ACT

Terry Webster

Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2001 | 10:38 a.m.

Nevada's college-bound students scored on par with those in the rest of the country on last year's ACT assessment, a college placement and admissions exam, results released today show.

The national average of ACT composite scores for those who took the test during the 2000-2001 school year was 21.0. Nevada's was 21.3.

About 39 percent of Nevada's June 2001 graduates took the exam, compared with 38 percent nationwide.

The national ACT exam is designed to measure what students have learned in English, reading, mathematics and science. Colleges use the exam for placing students in courses, based on their ability levels.

According to ACT, composite scores increased from 20.6 in 1992 to 21.0 in 1997, where it has remained to date. Scores have remained constant, even though the number of students taking the exam has increased by nearly 30 percent during that time, test officials noted.

ACT President Richard L. Ferguson said students are likely coming from a wider academic range than in years past.

"In this light, the fact that the average ACT score has either grown or stayed steady over the past decade is quite positive," he said.

Across the nation, 14 percent of students taking the exam earned composite scores of 27 or more, an acceptable range for top colleges and universities.

Another 18 percent of students tested scored 16 or less, suggesting they are not ready for the demands of college, according to ACT.

Students who fared poorly on the exam struggled in areas such as identifying the meaning of a sentence within a paragraph, routine math problems, reading graphs and tables, basic science terms and identifying variables in simple experiments.