Southeast Texas P-16 Council

Texas members of the Class of 2010 earned the highest mathematics and science scores posted on the ACT in the past decade, even as the number of test takers rose by 12 percent this year.

The overall composite score for Texas test takers remained steady at last year’s record high score of 20.8.

“The Class of 2010 has proven itself to be a pace setter. More of these students are planning to attend college and they set new records by earning Texas’ highest math and science scores. In fact, their average math score is substantially higher than the national average for math. Most of our student groups also outperformed their counterparts nationally,” said Commissioner of Education Robert Scott.

Among the Class of 2010, 92,615 Texas seniors took the ACT, compared to 82,640 members from the Class of 2009. Much of the increase is attributed to a fee waiver that allows low-income students to take the test for free.

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African-American fourth-grade students in Texas earned the sixth highest score on the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading test, results show.

The exam, often called “the nation’s report card,” was taken by 172,533 fourth-grade students in the nation’s public schools, including 5,954 youngsters in Texas. A NAEP reading exam was also given to 155,392 eighth-grade public school students across the country, including 5,733 in Texas.

Overall, the 2009 scores were statistically identical to the 2007 scores nationally and in Texas at both grades. NAEP exams are given every two years.
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