JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – The Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) has released ACT results of all public high school juniors who took the test during the spring 2023 statewide administration.

The average score for juniors was 17.5, which officials said was an increase of the previous years’ scores of 17.4 in 2022 and 17.3 in 2021. The percentage of juniors meeting the benchmark scores for all four tested ACT subjects was 9.3%, which was the same percentage in 2022.

The average highest score among 2023 Mississippi public school graduates was 17.9, and their average superscore was 19.9. Superscores are generated when students take the ACT multiple times and a student’s best scores from each of the four tested ACT subjects – English, mathematics, reading and science – are combined.

The ACT is designed to predict how well students will perform in college, and colleges use standardized tests like the ACT to compare students across schools and states.