Barrow County Schools Releases ACT Score Results

Barrow County students who took to ACT exam this year performed at a slightly higher level than those who took the same test last year.

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.

Overall, 255 Barrow students took the ACT in 2010-11, an increase of 16 from 2009-10. The average composite score for Barrow students increased from an average of 19.1 in 2010 to 19.2 in 2011.

Barrow students did fall behind the state average of 20.6.

The ACT also 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.

“As we continue to identify the best strategies for our students in the classroom we want to do the same with assessments,” Wanda Creel, Barrow County Schools superintendent, said in a news release. “Traditionally, the SAT has been advocated as the assessment needed to apply for college. That is no longer the case. Before deciding to take either the ACT or the SAT we encourage each student to first meet with their advisor or school counselor to see which assessment may be best aligned with their individual strengths academically and from a learning style perspective. The ACT is as equally regarded as the SAT and is accepted as an entrance exam at our colleges and universities.”

According to the school system, the areas in which Barrow students performed strongest were science and reading, which both yielded an average of 19.4. The weakest area was English, which yielded an average of 18.2. Statewide, approximately 49 percent of Georgia seniors participated in the ACT assessment last year. For 2011, the Barrow county participation rate was approximately 37 percent.