Missouri's composite ACT score dips amid its expanded testing

Now that Missouri has a baseline for its expanded ACT testing that began in 2015, local school districts are beginning to see how they compare and where they can improve.

Last week, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education announced Missouri’s composite ACT score is 20.2, or in the mid- to higher range of scores among states where 100 percent of high school juniors were tested.

Before that, only college-bound students in Missouri opted to take the test for a fee.

In 2015, however, Missouri began offering a one-time test to all students at no cost.

“We tested as many students as we could test,” said Sarah Potter, DESE’s communications coordinator.

The purpose was to gauge college and career readiness for all students; the new testing policy resulted in 18,000 additional students taking the exam statewide.

Christa Turner, the Cape Girardeau school district’s director of academic services, said a little more than 80 students took the ACT than usual during the expanded testing.

The district’s overall score dropped below the state average, but no specific number was available because local data are embargoed by the state until November.

The year before expanded testing became available, however, college-bound students had an average score of 20.9 compared to a then-state average of 21.7, she said.

To continue improving, Turner said the district is working to ensure all students are able to perform well, even if their post-secondary plans do not include a college degree.

“We’re continuing to use data and analyzing our strengths and weaknesses,” she said. “Our goal is to continually increase our scores, increase student achievement.”

Cape Girardeau’s 2016 graduating class had 256 students.

Matt Lacy, the Jackson school district’s associate superintendent of curriculum, instruction and human resources, also could not give a specific ACT average based on preliminary data, but said the score there exceeds the state composite score of 20.2.

“The preliminary data we have received indicate our scores are very strong with improved results,” he said.

During expanded testing, 60 more students than usual took the test in Jackson, Lacy said, and the 2016 graduating class had 298 members.

In Scott City, where the 2016 graduating class had 58 students, the district’s average ACT score dropped to 18 from 22.9 under expanded testing.

Superintendent Brian Lee said that might have happened for a few reasons.

The group of students who graduated in 2015 without expanded testing being offered were excellent test-takers — among the highest scorers in the region, he said.

Some students who graduated in 2016 after the test pool expanded might have been more motivated than others.

“Anytime you test more students, you’re going to have that score go down,” he said.

He expects the average district score to trend upward in the future, however, and said he’s glad the state included more students, because some who didn’t plan to attend college might discover they have more options based on their ACT performance.

Andrew Comstock, who began his position as superintendent in the Perry County school district in July, cited the embargoed preliminary figures but said the district’s average score in 2015 before expanded testing was 19.8, compared to the then-state average of 21.7.

So though that number is likely to have dipped again, work already needed to be done to improve.

“The thing for us is getting our ACT score at or above the state average,” he said.

The size of the district’s usual graduating class is about 200 students.

ljones@semissourian.com

(573) 225-2979