Oklahoma ranks 2nd to last in the nation, with an average ACT score of 17.6
Oklahoma’s average ACT score of 17.6 meanwhile Washington DC graduating class of 2024 had the highest average score in the US of 26.7 reported News On 6. However, only nine states test 100% of their students, including Oklahoma which makes comparisons unfair. For example in Washington DC, only 17% of students took the ACT states News On 6. The Oklahoma State Department of Education requires all juniors to take the ACT keeping school districts accountable, reported News On 6. The national average from the 2024 graduating class out of all states regardless of their estimated % of graduates who tested score was 19.4 concluded by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. The percentage meeting the English benchmark was 51%, the math benchmark was 29%, the reading benchmark was 40%, and the science benchmark was 30% followed by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. Megan Neely, an ACT test prep instructor said “If a student scores a specific score in math there’s a 75 percent chance that the student is going to make a C or better in a college math class” announced News On 6. Neely continued that looking at the states with only 2% of students taking the ACT, those students will clearly be on a different track reported News On 6.
Mike Officer, assistant superintendent for Owasso Public Schools said “We’re required to test 95%. If we don’t test 95% we’re dinged on our rating as well” announced News On 6. Because of this requirement, one ACT tutor argues it is not fair to compare Oklahoma’s average scores to the rest of the country detailed in News On 6. Officer continued that it is hard to expect all students to give their all when not all of the students are potentially going to college, said News On 6. Officer believes that superintendents should be allowed to develop other methods for accountability, but until then Owasso Schools will work to continue to improve its scores, said News On 6. Officer reassured readers that Owasso Schools will continue to look at doing smaller formative assessments, reported News On 6. These tests will allow the school to reteach where necessary, instead of doing summative tests to let students see what they remember from the last few weeks and move on as outlined in News on 6. If Oklahoma is compared to the other eight states testing 100 percent of its students, its scores rank about the same.
ACT scores started to decline even before the pandemic, for example in Oklahoma in 2017, the first year of Oklahoma requiring all students to take a college entrance exam, the average ACT score was 19.4 reported Oklahoma Watch. However, two years later this dropped to a further 18.9 followed by Oklahoma Watch. Nationally the test scores have been decreasing for years and Robinson continued that this is a pre-COVID and post-COVID analysis relayed by KOCO News 5. Robinson said that children are not learning as much during COVID as they were before, and the ACT is a good test of the underlying academic material, announced KOCO News 5.
The Oklahoma State Department of Education in a statement said “Oklahoma uses a CT as part of how we assess students, which is not the case in some other states. Consequently, there is no true apples-to-apples comparison of these scores from state to state” reported KOCO News 5. Zack Robinson, with Test Geek, followed this that your average scores will be lower typically if you test more students because other states are not testing all students, they are testing the most competitive ones reported KOCO News 5. Furthermore, the largest teacher’s union in Oklahoma echoed this previous statement that the score may be lower because it’s not just college-bound students taking the test, KOCO News 5. Test Geek is an ACT prep tutoring service in Oklahoma City, says the test reflects the core learnings of freshmen and sophomores in high school reported KOCO News 5.
