State's ACT Scores Hold Steady, Lose Ground to Minnesota

Wisconsin's students maintained their composite score of 22.2 on the ACT college entrance exam, according to rankings released Wednesday (August 17, 2005), and extended their streak of finishing first or second in the nation to 16 years.

This is the sixth straight year that the state's ACT score was 22.2. The national average composite score in 2005 was 20.9. A perfect ACT composite score is 36.

Sixty-nine percent of Wisconsin's 2005 graduates took the ACT, making Wisconsin one of 25 states in which the ACT is the dominant college entrance exam. In some states, the SAT is more widely used. Wisconsin students also have historically scored well above the national average on the SAT (2005 SAT results are expected to be released later this month).

"The dedication of teachers, education support professionals, administrators, and parents deserves much of the credit for the fact that Wisconsin's schools remain so strong," WEAC President Stan Johnson said.

However, Johnson said, Wisconsin public schools are suffering severe financial strain, and the threat to our continued excellence is evident in the fact that Minnesota was able to improve its composite score one-tenth of a percent and gain sole possession of the number one ranking on the ACT. That ends Wisconsin's 10-year streak of being first or tied for first on the ACT.

Johnson said the recent state budget battle illustrates the struggle that Wisconsin's great schools face in maintaining their excellence.

"Wisconsin has a school finance system in major need of reform and a Legislature that does not even want to honor the state's commitment to fund two-thirds of the cost of public education," Johnson said. "As legislators debated how much to reduce the school aid in Governor Jim Doyle's budget and whether it is necessary for teachers in taxpayer-funded voucher schools to have high school diplomas, the school district in Florence voted to shut its doors and school districts throughout the state wondered how to make ends meet under state-imposed revenue controls.

"We are fast approaching a time when we will no longer have great schools and classrooms that work," he said.

According to research by WEAC and the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators last year, more than two-thirds of the state's districts laid off teachers and education support professionals; 68% increased class sizes; 60% reduced course offerings; 49% reduced programs for at-risk students; and 55% reduced programs for gifted children.

"Minnesota's Legislature does not subject its school districts to these constraints, and that is why they are able to improve year after year while we are in jeopardy of losing the excellence we established before the revenue controls took hold," Johnson said.

DPI news release and tables
Resource page on school district revenue controls

Posted August 18, 2005