Fayette’s 2020 graduates maintained the school system’s traditionally high average composite score on the ACT, continuing the trend of high performance on the college readiness test.

Fayette’s 2020 average composite score is 23.6, the third highest in the state and in the metro Atlanta area when compared to school systems with over 1,000 test takers. It also ranks in the top one percent of the 151 school systems in the state that had ACT scores.

The county’s average score is 1.9 points higher than the state average of 21.7, and 3 points higher than the national average of 1.9.

Compared to last year’s composite score, the 2020 score inched up one tenth of a point.

All five high schools landed in the top 20 percent of Georgia high schools.

Compared to the 356 Georgia high schools with ACT scores, some testing fewer than 100 students, McIntosh High School is 15th in the state, Starr’s Mill High School is 22nd in the state, Whitewater High School is 43rd in the state, Sandy Creek High School is 57th in the state, and Fayette County High School is 66th in the state.

A total of 936 students in Fayette took the 2020 ACT, down nine percent from last year.

The ACT consists of curriculum-based tests of educational development in English, math, reading, and science designed to measure the skills needed for success in first-year college coursework.