Idaho students score higher than peers on ACT

Students who took the ACT college-entrance exam in Idaho are still performing better than their peers nationwide.

But results released Wednesday also show that boosting college readiness among Idaho’s high school graduates is proving a stubborn goal for the state.

Idaho students scored an average of 21.6 on a scale of 1 to 36 while the national average was 21.1, results that are nearly identical to those released last year.

But also unchanged was the percentage of Idaho high school graduates who proved ready for higher education. Like last year, only 26 percent of Idaho students who took the test met or surpassed all four benchmarks measuring their preparedness for college English, reading, math and science.

More than 11,800 students in Idaho took the ACT this year.