Press Release

ACT Scores Improve Slightly; 12% More Take Test

Denver Public Schools announced today that composite test scores on the American College Test (ACT) inched up during the 1999-2000 school year.

The composite score was up slightly to 19.3 (from 19.1 in the 1998-1999 school year) despite a 12 percent increase in the number of students who took the test.

The number of students who took the college-entrance test increased by 147 - from 1,220 in 1998-1999 to 1,367 students in 1999-2000.

That's the largest group since the 1983-1984 school year, when 1,530 students took the test.

"We're delighted to see more students take the test, because that shows more students are thinking about pursuing post-secondary education," said Interim Superintendent Bernadette Seick.

"We like the fact that more students have confidence in taking the college-entrance test, but we realize that we still need to make improvements to support achievement at the high school level. We don't want this number to get stuck in a narrow range - we want to move it up aggressively," she added.

The 19.3 composite is below the state composite score of 21.5 (which held steady over the previous year) and the 21.0 United States composite score (which hasn't budged in four years).

Among the individual school highlights:

• At Abraham Lincoln High School, the composite score jumped from 16.5 to 17.7.
• At East High School, the number of students taking the test jumped from 114 to 192 and the school's composite score jumped from 21.3 to 22.1.
• At Montbello High School, the number of students taking the test climbed from 106 to 124. The school's composite score rose from 16.9 to 17.1.
• At South High School, 32 more students took the test (125 in all).
• At West High School, the composite score jumped from 15.5 to 16.5.
• Denver School of the Arts posted a composite score of 22.7, up from 21.3.