• PIERRE, S.D. - South Dakota's average composite ACT score remains unchanged from last year at 21.8, where it has been for the past three years. The national average was also unchanged from a year ago, sitting at 21.1 as it has for four of the past five years.
• While South Dakota's scores are consistently higher than the national average by several tenths of a point, South Dakota Secretary of Education Dr. Melody Schopp says there is always room for improvement.
• She said efforts, such as implementation of the Common Core State Standards, should help boost student learning overall. With the Common Core, students will be challenged to engage higher-level thinking skills in order to arrive at a deeper understanding of the concepts they are learning.
• "The Common Core standards were designed to equip students with the knowledge and skills necessary as they move into postsecondary education and careers," Schopp said.
• The ACT is scored on a scale of 1 to 36, with 36 as the highest possible score. Students are tested in the areas of English, mathematics, reading and science, although the science portion is science reasoning, not science-content knowledge.

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