While state mean scores for college-bound students fell slightly in all categories this year, Lake Washington School District (LWSD) students scored higher in all four of the ACT tests (English, mathematics, reading and science) and improved their average composite score. In addition, LWSD students continue to show significantly greater college readiness than state averages and more than twice the national average for meeting all four benchmark scores.

The district’s average composite score rose by three tenths from 2010 to 2011, reaching 25.6, compared to the state average of 22.8 (down .2), and the national average of 21.0. At the same time, the number of LWSD students taking the test increased, rising from 408 in 2010 to 421 in 2011.

Average scores for Lake Washington students rose four tenths of a point on English, mathematics and reading, to 25.6 in English and mathematics and 26.0 in reading. Science increased one tenth of a point to 24.7. State scores averaged 22.3 on English and science, 22.9 on mathematics and 23.1 on reading.

In addition, Lake Washington students who take the ACT continue to be more likely to meet college readiness standards than other students in Washington state or in the U.S. In fact, more than half (55 percent) of Lake Washington students taking the ACT in 2011 met all four college readiness benchmarks, compared to 35 percent of students in Washington state and 25 percent of students nationwide.

The percent of Lake Washington students who met the ACT College Readiness Benchmarks increased in math, reading and science and remained the same in English. The greatest gain came in science, where 61 percent of district ACT test-takers met the college-readiness benchmark, compared to 40 percent statewide and 30 percent nationwide. That level is up five percent from last year for district students. Eighty-one percent of Lake Washington students met the math and reading benchmark standards, both up one percent. This compares to 60 percent statewide and 45 percent nationwide in math and 64 percent statewide and 52 percent nationwide in reading. For English, 92 percent of Lake Washington students again met the benchmark this year, compared to 76 percent statewide and 66 percent nationwide. In Washington state overall, 36 percent of students taking the ACT met the benchmark and nationwide the figure was 25 percent.

For more information on the ACT test itself and on national results, go to http://www.act.org/news/2011/08/17/readiness.