Beaufort County School District high school seniors in the Class of 2019 improved their performance on ACT college entrance exam, according to results released Oct. 30. District seniors’ scores were slightly higher than South Carolina’s state average.

The composite 2019 ACT average score for 1,226 Beaufort County School District seniors was 18.7, up from 18.6 last year. Beaufort County seniors’ average score was slightly higher than the state’s average for 33,834 seniors, which was 18.6.

Beaufort County School District averages were higher than state public school averages in three of the four individual ACT exams used to determine composite scores. Beaufort County School District seniors’ average scores on individual ACT exams were 17.7 (state average 17.5) in English; 18.6 (state average 18.5) in Math; 19.0 (state average 19.0) in Reading; and 18.8 (state average 18.7) in Science.

Beaufort County seniors’ average ACT score ranked 11th out of 82 districts statewide, the same ranking as last year.

The ACT is a group of curriculum-based achievement exams designed to measure the academic skills taught in schools and deemed important for success in first-year college courses. Scores range from a low of one to a high of 36.

“While our ACT composite average is above the state average of 18.6, we’re below the national average of 20.7,” Superintendent Frank Rodriguez said in a release. “We need to make sure high school students who want to attend college take the right academic courses. Students who do that will have a much greater chance of success on college entrance exams, and also in college.”