BATON ROUGE - The state's Department of Education announced Wednesday that Louisiana's average ACT Composite score has dipped to 18.7.

Based on the department's annual release of ACT data for the 2020 high school graduating class, Louisiana's score is at an all-time low since the state granted all students access to the test in 2013. 

Education leaders say this is the third consecutive year Louisiana's ACT Composite score has decreased. 

The state earned a 19.6 in 2016-2017 before seeing declines to 19.3 in 2017-2018 and 18.9 in 2018-2019. 

The average Composite score also declined among Students with Disabilities (14.8 in 2019 to 14.4 in 2020), Economically Disadvantaged (17.3 in 2019 to 17.1 in 2020) and English Learners (14.6 in 2019 to 14.2 in 2020).

The Class of 2020 Louisiana report includes over 53,000 students and the state calculates its ACT data using the "best score" calculation used by colleges and for school letter grades. 

ACT calculates Louisiana's average score for all public and private school students anticipating graduation that year using a student's "most recent score."

For more information visit https://www.louisianabelieves.com/