By LYNETTE HAALAND, Four Points News
Amid a 43-percent increase in the number of ACT exams given, the Leander ISD’s composite scores on the ACT continue to be higher than state and national averages. Vandegrift scores are several points higher than the already high LISD scores.
“VHS has significantly increased our volume of ACT testers by 65 percent in just two years which is exciting,” said Christa Martin VHS dean of instruction. Vandegrift tested 312 class of 2016 seniors through ACT and the majority of those students tested in April.
For 2016, the average ACT composite score (scale of 1 – 36) for a VHS graduate was 25.4. The average across all of LISD was 23.3, while the state composite score was 20.6 and the national average was 20.8
“LISD is proud to report that our students are continuing to outscore the state and national averages on the ACT,” said Karie Lynn McSpadden, LISD interim superintendent.
ACT tests are administered for a number of subject areas, including English, math, reading, science and writing (optional).
LISD’s high school college- and career-readiness teams did a phenomenal job reaching out to juniors, signing them up for the official school-day ACT offered in April at each high school campus, said Lisa Nucci, LISD director of college and career readiness.
“Due to this concerted effort to register them for the school-day ACT for the past couple of years, we have seen a substantial increase in the number of ACT exams taken by our 2016 graduates. We are very excited by these outcomes,” Nucci said.
The ACT reports the percentage of students ready for college course-work in English composition, algebra, social science and biology. Forty-one percent of LISD ACT test-takers achieved the college readiness standard in all four subjects, as compared with 26 percent meeting that standard at the state and national levels.
“These scores indicate that our college- and career-readiness efforts are on the right track to position LISD students for success after high school,” she said.
For the third year, LISD is offering an official ACT test for all interested juniors during the school day on April 19, 2017. ACT registration information will be available on campus homepages by the end of September. Additional ACT and college-readiness information and resources are available on the district’s college- and career-readiness webpage.
“A student can perform differently on SAT and ACT, and taking both exams can increase options for attaining the optimal score for merit-based scholarships and university admission,” Martin said.
