Austin High School students taking the ACT have tested better than the state and national averages for at least five years running.

Friday, August 20, 1999

Austin High School students taking the ACT have tested better than the state and national averages for at least five years running.

It’s a bright trend that may get even brighter with the district’s furture commitment to having all students complete core classes.

"Our scores are really awesome," said Candace Raskin, the director of educational services who has good reason to brag.

In 1999, the 128 Austin High School graduating seniors who took the ACT finished with a mean average of 22.7. That’s better than the state average of 22.1 – which is down 0.1 from the all-time high of 22.2 in 1998 – and the national average of 21.0.

The ACT Assessment comprises four curriculum-based achievement tests, designed to assess critical reasoning and higher-order thinking skills in English, math, reading and science. These tests – usually taken at the end of a student’s junior year – reflect students’ skills and achievement levels as products of their high school experience. ACT results are used by post-secondary institutions across the nation for admissions, academic advising, course placement and scholarship decisions.

Austin seniors who took core classes produced even better results than the student-body average. A core curriculum is based on three years each of math, social studies and science and four years of English. Those students finished with a 23.1 average, compared to 20.9 for students not taking core classes. Beginning in the 2000-01 school year, all students will be required to complete a core curriculum.

"After this year we want to have everybody taking the core classes," Raskin said. "It’s a change we made for our graduation requirements."