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ACT Scores Decline, Lowest In More Than 30 Years

ACT scores reach lowest levels in 32 years.

Posted October 16, 2023

ACT scores for 2023 drop to the worst performance in 32 years, according to data from the nonprofit that administers the college admissions test.

The impact of the pandemic on U.S. students continues as more than 4 in 10 seniors meet none of the college readiness benchmarks and 70 percent of seniors fall short of college readiness benchmark for mathematics, according to data from the ACT.

The 2023 composite score, an average of the scores for the English, math, reading and science, was only 19.5 out of 36. This is the lowest score since 1991.

The average composite score for Kansas students was 19.4 with 74 percent of graduates tested. Missouri’s average composite score was 19.6, however, only 66 percent of graduates were tested. 

“This is the sixth consecutive year of declines in average scores, with average scores declining in every academic subject,” ACT CEO Janet Godwin said in a release. “We are also continuing to see a rise in the number of seniors leaving high school without meeting any of the college readiness benchmarks, even as student GPAs continue to rise and students report that they feel prepared to be successful in college. The hard truth is that we are not doing enough to ensure that graduates are truly ready for postsecondary success in college and career. These systemic problems require sustained action and support at the policy level. This is not up to teachers and principals alone – it is a shared national priority and imperative.”

The 2023 cohort was in its first year of high school when the pandemic began, Axios reported last week.

More key findings:

  • The average Composite score declined by 0.3 points, from 19.8 in 2022 to 19.5 in 2023.
  • Between 2022 and 2023, average English scores declined 0.4 points (from 19.0 to 18.6), average mathematics scores declined 0.3 points (from 19.3 to 19.0), average reading scores declined 0.3 points (from 20.4 to 20.1), and average science scores declined by 0.3 points (from 19.9 to 19.6).
  • The percentage of students meeting all four benchmarks dropped 1.3 percentage points, from 22.1 percent of students in 2022 to 20.8 percent of students in 2023, whereas the percentage of students meeting no benchmarks increased by 1.7 percentage points, from 41.6 percent in 2022 to 43.3 percent in 2023.
  • Roughly 1.4 million high school seniors took the ACT test, an increase over the 2022 graduating class.

View the full Average ACT Scores by State Graduating Class of 2023, here.