The National ACT Score Average Rises as the Test's Popularity Grows

By ELIZABETH F. FARRELL

The average score of high-school seniors who took the ACT exam in 2005-6 rose two-tenths of a point, to 21.1, the biggest one-year increase in scores over the past two decades, ACT officials said in August.

But even though scores have reached their highest level since 1991, and a record...