ACT scores fall as fewer take the test, including in Iowa

IOWA CITY — Like the number and percentage of American high school graduates taking the ACT — as more colleges and universities make standardized test scores optional in their admission process — the national average ACT composite score has been dropping, reaching its lowest point in more than 30 years, the Iowa-City-based company announced Wednesday.

For 2022 high school graduates nationally, the average ACT composite score was 19.8 — marking the first time since 1991 the average has dipped below 20, according to new data from ACT, which administers the college readiness exam.

Although the University of Iowa — for example — this fall boasted about its most “academically accomplished” freshman class ever, it mentioned only the group’s average GPA of 3.82 — not its ACT scores, as far fewer applicants have been submitting standardized test scores in recent years.

That downward trend in test taking began pre-pandemic and accelerated during the pandemic when the UI — like others — waived test scores as an application requirement. Earlier this year, the UI made test scores an optional part of the application process permanently.

Where 4,782 UI students submitted ACT scores for fall 2017, or about 95 percent of the freshmen class, that tally dropped to 3,919 in fall 2020, or about 87 percent, and then 2,944 in fall 2021, or about 65 percent, according to the most recent data available.

Nationally, about 1.3 million U.S. high school graduates in 2022 took the ACT, or about 36 percent. About 1.9 million did so in 2015, or about 59 percent of the national graduating class, according to ACT data.

Among those 2022 high school graduates who took the test, only 22 percent met all four of ACT’s college readiness benchmarks in the subjects of reading, math, English and science — considered the minimum ACT scores students need to have a higher probability of success in first-year college courses.

That 22 percent this fall was down from 25 percent in 2021. About 42 percent of the 2022 students met none of the benchmarks, up from 38 percent in 2021.

“This is the fifth consecutive year of declines in average scores, a worrisome trend that began long before the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, and has persisted,” ACT Chief Executive Officer Janet Godwin said in a statement. “The magnitude of the declines this year is particularly alarming, as we see rapidly growing numbers of seniors leaving high school without meeting the college-readiness benchmark in any of the subjects we measure.

“These declines are not simply a byproduct of the pandemic,” she said. “They are further evidence of longtime systemic failures that were exacerbated by the pandemic. A return to the pre-pandemic status quo would be insufficient and a disservice to students and educators.”

The new data shows average English scores dipped 0.6 percentage points — from 19.6 to 19.0 — from 2021 to 2022; average math scores saw the same drop of 0.6 points from 19.9 to 19.3; average reading scores fell a half percentage point from 20.9 to 20.4; and average science scores also dropped 0.5 points from 20.4 to 19.9.

The declines, according to ACT, have “returned student achievement to levels last observed in the early 1990s.”

The new ACT research breaks out data by state, showing 49 percent of Iowa’s 2022 graduates took the ACT — placing it 23rd in the nation, with 100 percent of graduates testing in states including Alabama and Louisiana and under 5 percent testing in California and Maine.

Iowa’s average composite score of 21.4 was second highest among the 25 states that saw the highest testing rates. But that was down from 22.1 a decade ago.

The percent of Iowa’s ACT-tested graduates who met all four benchmarks fell to 28 percent this year — down from 32 percent a decade ago. Iowa saw its weakest performance in math and science, with 40 percent and 43 percent meeting those benchmarks, respectively.

About 65 percent of Iowa’s 2022 graduates met the English benchmark, its strongest performance but still down from 76 percent in 2013.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

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