N.J. students top national benchmarks in ACT scores

    New Jersey students topped the national benchmarks for average scores on the ACT exam for the high school class of 2012.

    Nationally, overall readiness scores remain much lower in science and math compared to English and reading. Just 46 percent of students of the record 1.66 million who took the exam met the national benchmark in math, as did 31 percent in science, compared to 67 percent in English and 52 percent in reading.
    In New Jersey, 67 percent of students who took the exam met the national benchmark in math, as did 43 percent in science. Eighty-one percent met the benchmark in English, while 67 percent made it in reading.

    The scores, released Wednesday, cover the first-ever class in which more than half of graduates nationally took the ACT.

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