Fayette ACT scores are at a 5-year high

Fayette’s 2016 graduates posted the highest average composite score on the ACT than they have in the past five years, even with the number of test-takers jumping a record-setting 6 percent from 2015.

 

Fayette County School System spokesperson Melinda Berry-Dreisbach said Fayette’s average composite score of 23.6 rose seven-tenths of a percentage point from 2015. The county’s average score is higher than the state average of 21.1, and the national average of 20.8.

 

The ACT consists of curriculum-based tests of educational development in English, math, reading, and science and is designed to measure the skills needed for success in first-year college coursework.

 

“All five high schools landed in the top 30 percent of Georgia high schools,” Berry-Dreisbach said.

 

Berry-Dreisbach said individual school scores increased or remained the same from 2015.

 

Fayette County High and Starr’s Mill High each had a 1-percent increase in their scores, the highest increase of all high schools.

 

McIntosh High’s score increased seven-tenths of a percentage point, Sandy Creek High’s score increased two-tenths of a percentage point while Whitewater High’s score remained the same.

 

Compared to the 387 Georgia high schools with ACT scores, some testing fewer than 100 students, McIntosh was 10th in the state, Starr’s Mill was 11th in the state, Whitewater was 38th in the state, Sandy Creek was 72nd in the state, and Fayette County High was 117th in the state.

 

“A total of 1,155 students in Fayette took the 2015 ACT, a 6-percent jump from last year, and the largest increase in five years,” said Berry-Dreisbach. “Although test-takers have been steadily increasing, until this year, the increases have been between one and two and a half percent.”