More than 56,000 Missouri students in the graduating class of 2019 took the ACT. Missouri’s score placed the state slightly higher than the class of 2019’s national average. An estimated 82 percent of the 2019 Missouri graduating class completed the ACT with an average composite score of 20.8, while an estimated 52 percent of students nationwide took the exam with an average composite of score of 20.7.

Here are Missouri and national average composite scores as calculated by ACT in every subject:

Twenty-five percent of the Missouri class of 2019 met all four ACT college readiness benchmarks. In English, 62 percent of Missouri graduates met the college readiness benchmark. The state also aligned with the national numbers for students looking to attain the Gold ACT WorkKeys National Career Readiness Certificate, as Missouri and the nation each landed at 41 percent.

A continued trend showed that students who had taken more advanced coursework performed higher in subject areas than those who had taken less than three years of a particular subject.

Missouri uses the ACT as one of its measures of college and career readiness in its continuing effort to ensure that all Missouri students graduate from high school ready to succeed in college or the workplace.