Oklahoma Ranks 2nd To Last In Nation With Average ACT Score Of 17.6

The testing company ACT has released the average scores for last year’s graduating class by state, including Washington, D.C.

Oklahoma ranks second to last with an average score of 17.6, while Washington, D.C.'s graduating class of 2024 had the highest average score in the U.S. with 26.7.

Only nine states, including Oklahoma, test 100 percent of their students, so it's not fair to compare states like Washington, D.C., where only 17 percent of students took the ACT.

ACT says its test is designed to measure college and career readiness for high school upperclassmen who take it.

"They can adequately say, 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," said Megan Neely, an ACT test prep instructor.

The Oklahoma State Department of Education requires all juniors to take the ACT to keep school districts accountable.

"We’re required to test 95%. If we don't test 95% we’re dinged on our rating as well," said Mike Officer, assistant superintendent for Owasso Public Schools.

Because of that requirement, one ACT tutor says it’s not fair to compare Oklahoma’s average scores to the rest of the country. "When you look at the states where you only have two percent of students who have selected to take the ACT, those students are clearly going to be on a different track," said Neely.

"When you ask a student to take a test that is three or four hours that they know they don’t need, it’s really difficult to make them want to do that," Officer added.

Officer says it’s hard to expect all students to give their best on the ACT when not all students plan to go to a four-year college. He thinks superintendents should be allowed to develop a different method for accountability, but until then, Owasso Schools will work to improve scores.

"We try to look at rather than doing lots of summative assessments, you just give a student to see what they remember from the last couple weeks and then moving on, we try to do lots of smaller formative assessments that allow us to re-teach when necessary," said Officer.

When Oklahoma is compared to the other eight states testing 100 percent of their students, its scores are about the same.