<span style="font-weight: 400"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-57490 size-full" src="https://theenterprise.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2021/10/Students.png" alt="" width="752" height="451" />Virginia students outperformed their peers nationwide by significant margins this year on the ACT college-admissions test, but the number of high school seniors who took the ACT in the commonwealth was down by more than half compared with participation among 2020 graduates.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400">Nine percent of Virginia’s 2021 graduates took the ACT, compared to 19% of 2020 graduates. ACT attributed the decline in participation in the state and nation to factors related to the pandemic.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400">The percentage of Virginia’s 2021 graduating seniors who met the ACT’s college-readiness benchmark in each content area was 30 or more points higher than the percentages for graduates nationwide, with students performing as follows: </span> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">86 percent of Virginia seniors met the benchmark in English, compared with 56 percent nationwide;</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">75 percent met the benchmark in reading, compared with 44 percent.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">68 percent met the benchmark in mathematics, compared with 36 percent.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">67 percent met the benchmark in science, compared with 35 percent.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">56 percent met the benchmarks in all four subjects, compared with 25 percent.</span></li> </ul> <span style="font-weight: 400">“Given the impact of the pandemic on participation, the latest ACT results represent a snapshot of achievement during a challenging year,” Superintendent of Public Instruction James Lane said. “But even so, the ACT – like the more widely taken SAT – shows that Virginia students continue to demonstrate a much higher level of college readiness than their peers nationwide.”</span> <span style="font-weight: 400">The college-readiness benchmarks identify students whose ACT scores indicate that they are prepared for first-year college English composition, reading, algebra and biology. ACT results are reported on a scale of 1 to 36, with 36 being the highest score. Virginia students achieved an average composite score of 25.5, compared with 20.3 for graduates nationwide.</span>
