ACT scores for recent high school juniors in both the East and West Tallahatchie school districts were down from one year ago and lag behind those of juniors at most area high schools, according to figures released Nov. 7 by the Mississippi Department of Education.
The ACT test is administered in the spring each year, and Mississippi is one of only 16 states that provide the test for free to high school juniors.
The average composite score for 57 test-takers at Charleston High School was 14.5 in spring 2024, down from the 15.1 average of the 54 test-takers in in spring 2023.
Click on Title To Read Document
At West Tallahatchie High School, 47 juniors averaged a composite score of 14.2 this year, while 32 test-takers averaged 15.3 last year.
Statewide, the average composite score for 30,206 juniors was 17.4 in 2024, a slight decrease from the 2023 average score of 17.5 Previous years' statewide averages were 17.4 in 2022 and 17.3 in 2021.
MDE reported that among 2024 Mississippi public high school graduates, the average score was 17.5, the overall highest average score was 18.4 and the average superscore was 18.7. Superscores are generated when a student takes the ACT multiple times and the student's best scores from each of the four tested ACT subjects — English, mathematics, reading and science — are combined.
The national average ACT score for all public school students in the class of 2024 was 19, compared to 19.1 in 2023.
According to MDE, the ACT is designed to predict how well students will perform in college, and colleges use standardized tests such as the ACT to compare students across schools and states.
The ACT composite scores of East and West Tallahatchie juniors taking the test in 2024 and 2023 lag behind those of juniors at nearly all area schools, according to MDE figures, as follows:
| Average composite ACT scores |
2024 |
2023 |
| Mississippi (statewide) |
17.4 |
17.5 |
| Charleston High School |
14.5 |
15.1 |
| West Tallahatchie High School |
14.2 |
15.3 |
| Amanda Elzy High School |
15.4 |
15.6 |
| Clarksdale High School |
14.7 |
14.6 |
| Cleveland Central High School |
16.6 |
16.1 |
| Coahoma County High School |
14.3 |
15.0 |
| Coffeeville High School |
13.7 |
14.7 |
| Greenwood High School |
14.4 |
15.4 |
| Grenada High School |
17.2 |
16.7 |
| J.Z. George High School |
16.5 |
16.3 |
| Lafayette County High School |
19.4 |
19.3 |
| Leflore County High School |
14.9 |
15.6 |
| M.S. Palmer High School |
15.3 |
15.0 |
| North Panola High School |
14.7 |
14.5 |
| Oxford High School |
20.1 |
20.4 |
| South Panola High School |
17.2 |
17.1 |
| Water Valley High School |
16.7 |
16.7 |
| Winona High School |
17.5 |
17.9 |
Spring 2024 ACT subject-area average scores are as follow.
| Average subject area scores |
English |
Math |
Reading |
Science |
| Mississippi |
16.7 |
17.0 |
18.1 |
17.6 |
| Charleston High |
12.4 |
14.7 |
14.8 |
15.5 |
| West Tallahatchie High |
12.7 |
14.2 |
14.4 |
14.8 |
Complete statewide results are attached as a PDF, or view here.
To see all 2024 MDE assessment results, visit here.
