MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT) -- The 2015 ACT college prep test results were released Wednesday and Tennessee student scores are essentially unchanged from last year.
The ACT is designed to determine how well prepared a student is to tackle college level class work. Tennessee requires every student at both public and private schools to take the test.
Students who graduated this past spring chalked up a composite score of 19.8, the same mark achieved in 2014.
Tennessee’s ACT scores ranked sixth lowest in the nation.
However, when Tennessee public school student ACT scores are considered separately there was some improvement. The composite score for public schools jumped from 19.3 in 2014 to 19.4 this year. Public school ACT scores have risen by a respectable 4 points in the past four years.
Teresa Wasson with the influential education advocacy group SCORE, says that while ACT marks at Tennessee’s public schools are trending higher, there’s still a lot of room for improvement.
“Really, only one in five graduates, and one in six graduates from public schools, reach the level on this college and career readiness measure that indicates that they are going to be successful at higher education and work.”
Wasson says Tennessee’s minority students scores are even more troubling, with only nine percent of African American students achieving readiness marks in English, reading, math and science.