Oconee Students Achieve Best-Ever ACT Scores

Oconee County students of the Class of 2011 earned the highest ACT scores in recorded history for the school system, according to a weekly email update from Superintendent John Jackson.

A record number of local students took part in the 2010-2011 American College Testing Program, a competitor to the more widely known SAT Reasoning Test. Like the SAT, the ACT is used as an entrance exam by major colleges and universities to gauge how prepared students are for a college curriculum.

The ACT differs from the SAT in that the range of possible scores runs from an 11 to a 36, with an average of approximately 20, as compared to the SAT, which has possible scores from 500 to 1600 with an approximate average of 1000.

The ACT lacks a mandatory writing section and students are not penalized for missed responses, as they are on the SAT. The ACT is divided into four sections, which are English, mathematics, reading and science.

Overall, 235 Oconee students took the ACT in 2010-11. The average composite score for Oconee students increased from 23.4 in 2010 to 23.9 in 2011.

Oconee students outperformed the state and national ACT averages of 20.6 and 21.1, respectively, Jackson wrote.

"There is no doubt that the increased academic rigor, as a result of tougher graduation requirements in Oconee schools as well as challenging instruction delivered by our teachers, are contributing to the upward tick in ACT scores," Jackson said in a released statement.