New Trier Class of 2012 Breaks School Record on ACT Achievement

is celebrating another year of record achievement on the ACT.

Students in the Class of 2012 posted an average composite score of 27.7, placing New Trier among the top public open-enrollment high schools in the country. 

The 27.7 average composite score is the highest in school history. The Class of 2011 had broken the school record last year with an average composite score of 27.5

An analysis of the Class of 2012 data finds that the outstanding achievement spans across all levels of coursework at New Trier. Students who never took an AP English or math course at the school still far outperformed their high school peers on the test. More than half of New Trier students received composite scores that place them among the top 9 percent in the country.

All Illinois juniors take the ACT as part of the Prairie State Achievement Exam, the state’s standardized test for 11th graders. The ACT is a college entrance exam that includes multiple-choice questions in the categories of English, Mathematics, Reading, and Science, assigning scores of 1-36 in each category. The average composite ACT score for students in the state of Illinois was 20.9.

More than half of New Trier students received composite scores that place them among the top 9 percent in the country.

Overall, New Trier students achieved average scores of 28.3 in English, 27.9 in Mathematics, 27.7 in Reading, and 26.6 in Science.

New Trier students also met the college readiness benchmarks established by ACT at a high level, with 97 percent of students meeting the English benchmark and 91 percent meeting the Math standard.  

New Trier emphasizes its ACT statistics to colleges and universities to help them understand the depth and breadth of New Trier’s program and the high levels of academic achievement by students enrolled in all course offerings.

Editor's Note: This information was provided via news release to Patch from New Trier High School.