ACT Scores Up for Jefferson County Students

Jefferson County High School has received the combined ACT score for the Class of 2013 and it shows a 1.7 increase over the 2012 scores. The Class Composite for 2013 graduates was 19.8, up from 18.1 in 2012. Students in the Class of 2013, which graduated in May, took the ACT test in the spring of their junior year as a part of a State wide imitative to track college and career readiness. The ACT originated as American College Testing and it, along with the SAT, have become the benchmark college readiness exam. Students seeking entrance into college must take the ACT or SAT and meet the necessary scores for admission. Acceptable scores vary from institution to institution, with the higher tier schools requiring higher scores for acceptance. ACT and SAT scores are also used to determine academic scholarships, as well as NCAA eligibility for athletes. In Tennessee, lottery money has been assigned, in part, to the HOPE Scholarship, which requires a 21 composite on the ACT. A composite score is the combined total of English, Math, Reading and Science that the student receives on the ACT.  Through collaboration with colleges and universities across the Nation, ACT has established a benchmark of scores in the individual testing areas that project a student’s chances of making a C grade or higher in college courses. According to information released by ACT, 59% of the students tested at Jefferson County High School have a 75% chance of making a C or higher in college English-29% in college Algebra-34% in Social Science and 28% in college level Biology. 17% of the students tested had a 75% chance of making a C or better in all four subject areas.

Director of Secondary Education for Jefferson County Schools, Ruth Pohlman, stated that the upward trend in student scores is encouraging and points to the initiatives that Jefferson County High School has taken to bolster academic achievement. She said that school goals are important and that JCHS administration and staff are striving to reach the point that every college bound student meets scholarship qualifications and ACT college readiness benchmarks. More than a quarter of the students that took the ACT in 2013 scored a composite of 21 or higher, which meets the HOPE Scholarship ACT requirement. Recently, ACT has been touted as a career readiness test, as well as college readiness, however there is not currently a benchmark set for success in the work place.