by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
Sartell students not only out-perform their peers in the United States in the American College Testing program, but they also out-perform their Minnesota peers who are – on average – tops in the nation.
And not only that, but the participation numbers of Sartell-St. Stephen students in ACT is up 10 percent from last year.
The ACT tests students in English, math, reading and science and includes benchmarks that determine students’ readiness for college.
In the last round of tests, the national average score was 21.0. The Minnesota average was 22.7, and the Sartell average was 24.2.
Minnesota had the highest rate for ACT averages for the past 10 years.
“The students from the Sartell-St. Stephen School District continue to perform well above the state average and have a high participation rate . . . “ said Jeff Schwiebert, superintendent. “This shows the dedication our students, families, staff and community have toward college and career readiness.”
Schwiebert noted that statewide, 39 percent of students who take the ACT met all four benchmarks for English, reading, math and science, and that percentage is the highest in the nation. Students in Sartell topped that by 8 percentage points as 47 percent of them met or exceeded all four benchmarks.
The ACT is taken by high-school students as one measure of readiness for college and is accepted by all four-year colleges and universities in all 50 states. More than 1.5 million high-school students take the test annually.
