In 2024, it seems we’re still seeing the pandemic’s effects on student academics, new national data suggests.
Average composite ACT scores fell to a five-year low of 19.4 for the 2024 graduating class. That’s just slightly below 2023’s 19.5 average, with the research indicating a steady decline since the 2019-20 school year. Here’s a snapshot:
| 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 |
| 20.6 | 20.3 | 19.8 | 19.5 | 19.4 |
One point to consider is that 2024’s graduating class were freshmen during the first full year of COVID-19 learning disruptions. The percentage of students meeting the STEM benchmark has also declined over the years. In 2020, it was 20%, compared to 15% in 2024.
Across the board, 30% of graduates met three or four of ACT’s benchmarks in English, math, reading and science, while 57% met one or more.
Here’s some additional data from 2024’s ACT data, which you can read more about :
- 26% of PreACT test takers who said they didn’t plan to attend college ended up enrolling
- Among the 35% of graduates who tested multiple times, students improved their ACT Superscore by an average of 2.4 points
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