High school juniors who took the ACT in the spring saw their scores slip statewide, according to a press release from the Mississippi Department of Education.

MDE released the spring ACT scores Thursday, which indicated Mississippi juniors on average saw their scores decrease from 18 in 2017 to 17.8 in 2018.

The Vicksburg Warren School District actually saw scores among the 464 juniors who took the ACT increase slightly from 15.8 in 2017 to 16.0 in 2018.

Vicksburg High School had a composite score of 14.8 in 2018 among 192 test takers, compared to 15.2 in 2017 when 272 juniors took the ACT.

The 272 Warren Central High School juniors who took the test in 2018 increased the composite score to 16.9, compared to 16.4 among the 308 juniors in 2017.

On average, juniors at both VWSD high schools scored highest in reading (15.4 for VHS and 17.4 for WCHS) and lowest in English (12.9 for VHS and 15.7 for WCHS). WCHS juniors scored 17.2 in Science and 16.8 in Math, while VHS juniors scored 15.2 in Science and 15.3 in Math, on average.

“We are encouraged that the district ACT scores continue to rise,” Chad Shealy, VWSD superintendent, said. “We will look for meaningful increases in years to come as we continue to prepare all students to graduate ready for college, career and life.”

Statewide, eight districts achieved an average composite of 20.0 or higher compared to 14 in 2017.

ACT scores for the graduating class of 2018 were released nationally in October, which showed the average composite score among Mississippi’s graduating class of 2018 remained steady at 18.6 from 2017 to 2018. The national average ACT score for the class of 2018 dropped to 20.8 from 21 in 2017.

The percentage of 2018 Mississippi graduates meeting the benchmark scores for all four tested ACT subjects remained flat at 12 percent, and the percentage decreased among juniors from 10 percent in 2017 to 9 percent in 2018.

“The 11th grade ACT administration measures college-readiness at a crucial time in high school when there is still time to provide interventions to improve achievement,” Dr. Carey Wright, state superintendent of education, said in a press release. “ACT research shows that taking certain specific courses in high school substantially increases students’ readiness for college level work as well as their readiness for workforce training programs.”