More Oregon high school seniors than ever took this year's college entrance test administered by the American College Testing Program. Our 2007 graduates earned an average ACT composite score of 22.0, higher than the national average of 21.2 but down down slightly from last year’s score of 22.4, a decline ACT officials say was likely due to the increase in students taking the test. 

The number of Oregon students taking the ACT grew significantly: 6,401 took the ACT at some point in their high school career – an increase of 45 percent from 2006. This represents 18 percent of the state’s graduates, compared to 13 percent last year. Nationally, more than 1.3 million students took the ACT.

The ACT is made up of four exams in English, reading, mathematics and science. Oregon students scored above the national average in all four areas of the ACT exam. Among Oregon ’s graduates, 71 percent met the English benchmark (compared to 69 percent nationally), 52 percent met the math benchmark (compared to 43 percent nationally), 59 percent met the reading benchmark (compared to 53 percent nationally), and 33 percent met the science benchmark (compared to 28 percent nationally).

More information on ACT tests.