Average ACT Scores

 
The ACT is a college readiness exam that some of California’s students take to expand their options for attending colleges and universities across the United States.  The ACT is one of the two major standardized tests used for college admissions in the United States. The other is the SAT.
 
In contrast to the SAT, the ACT focuses on four subjects: English, Math, Reading, and Science with an optional essay portion.  Each subject in the ACT is scored on a scale between 1 and 36, with the optional essay graded on a domain of scores between 2 and 12.  In Los Angeles County, students received an average composite score of 21 across the four subjects during the 2016-17 academic year. Therefore, Los Angeles County’s students scored below the state’s average composite score of 22.25 (California Department of Education, 2018).  This trend may reflect the achievement gap between the different ethnicities and the socioeconomic disadvantages of certain groups when it comes to educational achievement in the Los Angeles region.