By Melissa Dunson

mdunson@joplinglobe.com

This past school year, several Joplin-area school districts posted higher composite scores on the American College Test, and even more districts chalked up increases in the number of students taking the test.

The increases in latter tallies, school officials suggest, mean the total number of students ready for college is rising.

The same thing goes for students across Missouri and the rest of the nation.

A record number of U.S. high-school students, 1.42 million, took the ACT in 2007-08. In Missouri, a record 47,240 took the test. That was an increase of 4 percent over the prior year.

Missouri’s average score held steady at 21.6, and the national average dropped only slightly from 21.2 to 21.1.

In Joplin, Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer said the R-8 district posted its highest ACT scores and most participation last year in a five-year span with an overall average of 22.

In addition, she said, 252 students took the test. In 2004, 222 students took the test.

She said 63 of the 252 students who took the test in Joplin scored 25 or above, and 21 recorded a score of 30 or above — more than double the number that scored that well just a year ago. Two students pegged scores of 35, only one point short of a perfect 36.

“It’s pretty awesome,” Besendorfer said. “Our scores are really great this year.”

Breaking local records

Neosho R-5 Superintendent Richard Page said the district has been increasing both the number of students who take the ACT and the district’s average composite score in recent years.

In 2007-08, the district posted a composite score of 21.4, compared with a score of 20.7 the previous year. In the same period, 159 students, the most for Neosho R-5 ever, took the test, Page said.

Deborah Swarens, the new Carthage R-9 assistant superintendent for education, said her district also posted a record for the number of students taking the test. Students raised the district’s composite to 22, and surpassed the state’s averages in every one of the four areas the ACT measures — English, math, reading and science.