Georgia Students Beat National Average on ACT

For the seventh year in a row, Georgia students beat the national average on the ACT, with the state’s highest scores in reading.

Georgia’s class of 2023 recorded an average composite score of 21.3, compared to the national average of 19.5.

Additionally, the percentage of Georgia students in the class of 2023 meeting ACT’s College Readiness Benchmarks was higher than the national average in all subject areas, and the percentage of Georgia students who met all four benchmarks was eight percent higher than the national average.

The subject with the highest percentage of Georgia students meeting benchmarks was English, followed by Reading:

State School Superintendent Richard Woods said the high school graduates of 2023 were high-school freshmen when the pandemic closed schools in 2020.

He said their education was severely impacted by the national crisis, but they have risen above and we’ve seen positive news regarding their SAT scores, graduation rate, and now ACT scores in recent weeks.

Georgia students’ average score decreased slightly compared to 2022, when the average was 21.6, but still exceeds the pre-pandemic average of 20.7.

Additionally, Georgia’s scores in every individual subject area were higher than the national average, with Georgia students recording their highest score in the subject area of Reading.

Twenty-eight percent of the class of 2023 took the ACT. Seventy-four Georgia students achieved a perfect score of 36.

All scores are based on 2023 high school graduates who took the ACT at any point during high school.