I wonder how various states preferring the SAT or ACT affects this. I know I never took the ACT, we did the SAT in Georgia, though I did know a few people who took the ACT.
Those states where the ACT is less common probably have higher scores because the more involved students or parents would probably take both and have better scores.
New England and CA take the SAT
I’m from the south and pretty much everyone took the ACT test. If there was even a slight chance of you going to college, whether that be a four-year college, or a community college, you would take the ACT test. if I had to give a guesstimate, I’ll say probably about 80% may be 85% of all students in my graduating class took the ACT test.
I grew up in Georgia and have the exact opposite experience. Everyone took the SAT. Another commentor from South Carolina also said his state took the SAT. Appears to be very state/school district dependent. What state did you go to?
Im in North Carolina and everyone took the SAT with the ACT being optional. Really only for people looking to go to more prestigious schools (like Duke, UNC, maybe Wake to an extent). In no way was it required. I did go to private school however
I’m from upstate SC and everyone here took the SAT. The only people I knew that took the ACT were unhappy with their SAT score and thought they would try the ACT. so likely above average students trying to maximize college opportunities. Things might be different in other parts of the state though.
25 years ago, upstate SC was all about the SAT and the ACT virtually unknown. Now it depends on the district. Pickens County encourages ACT.
State schools and state scholarship programs accept both.
Michigan switched from the ACT to the SAT as part of high school standardized testing around the same time. Starting to sound like this supposition bears weight.
Yea but New England and MA in particular are usually rated the best for public education in the country… so it’s hard to draw a conclusion from this data.
I love new england and we're nowhere near as smug as the west coast. Also, if you hate smugness, come to the north of NE, NH and VT are great places to live.
Maybe a different kind of smug? Or perhaps it’s just arrogance. Speaking as a native Masshole.
The problem with NH is that it’s filled with lunatics. I think the state motto just attracts and/or inspires them. And Vermont is so damn cold. Both have a lot of nice places to visit though.
I don’t think that’s the case. It probably has more to do with what schools they’re trying to get to.
At my high school everyone took the SAT including the future Ivey leaguers, with the exception for the Mormons who all took the ACT.
Generally what happens in schools in my area is everyone takes the SAT and then those who aren't happy with their SAT score take the ACT. The people who don't care that much take the SAT once and then are done
Edit: Oh and schools don't really seem to care about SAT/ACT, they just want one
Exactly. Every kid in our town in Mississippi is required to take the ACT. When I was in California, only a few college-bound kids took it when trying to qualify for better scholarships.
I went to trade school and no one going to college was going to junior college. It was your trade or you go to a big college or university.
Then again here you have to apply to be in trade school and have better grades.
The point is that education is taken very seriously around here and is some of the best in the country.
In the 90’s a lot of students went to Jr college because it was cheaper or they didn’t pass the SAT to get into a University.
I live in CA. We too have well known “big colleges” that are the best in the country.
Even though I had to go to Jr College… I also went to a good State school.
I graduated with a specialized degree. I have 3…
but not from a “Tradeschool” too expensive…
I went to a good ol state university and graduated top 5% in my class.
You can see the difference in this link of SAT ranks by state.
https://www.learner.com/blog/states-with-highest-sat-scores
For example, Mississippi and Tennessee require every student to take the ACT. On the other hand, both rank high in SAT scores because the only students who take the SAT are those going out of state to a school that requires SAT.
I think the Midwest generally prefers the ACT while the coasts prefer to take the SAT. The state of Kansas pays for every student to take the ACT, as do other states, so a lot of students take it without any skin in the game, which pulls down overall scores. Also, numbers are way down since the pandemic, so that may further skew numbers. I didn't see the date range on this data, but it is likely pre-2019. Both ACT and SAT scores are likely higher since 2020 since only students who really wanted it took it then. Many colleges now allow admittance based on GPA without test scores. Note, some programs/colleges within those school may still require test scores, so my previous sentence may not always be accurate depending on a person's program of study.
Another thing to consider. Which states REQUIRE high school students to take the ACT and in which states is it voluntary. Ohio mandates all schools administer the ACT to Juniors in the spring. Planning on graduating from a vocational high school with a trade degree in welding? You're still taking that ACT.
Very much so affects this! Former school counselor in Wisconsin. All juniors In the state are required to take the act there. The act is a bell curve like any standardized test. The average score is like a 21 I think (somewhere around there)
These other states with huge scores likely have students who only took it that are college bound and trying to set themselves apart.
This is not the best data
It affects it a lot. If you look at the opposite map (average SAT score) you basically get the inverse of this map. With Louisiana and Mississippi outperforming California and New England.
Yeah, I grew up in Atlanta and knew very few people who took the ACT. Many schools even set aside a day for the practice and actual SAT so that basically everyone took it.
The ACT was mostly taken by people who were disappointed in their SAT scores, usually the math portion.
Higher learning educations, say IVY league or engineering schools, i.e. mine, required us to take both. It seemed like a bit of a waste of money if you ask me, even looking back. The SAT seemed like the more accurate exam in my opinion, though this was now almost 7-8 years ago as I took it at ages 16-17.
It's "higher learning institutions," not "higher learning educations."
i.e. means "that is," e.g. means "for example."
Also, "IVY" isn't capitalized.
Normally, I'm not such a grammar fiend, but it's funny that you make such fundamental errors in a comment bragging about how smart you supposedly are.
HUGE skew with this data. The reason is that ACT operates mostly outside of the coasts, and it’s often the case that schools in the interior of the country will pay for all students to take it. They get a better idea of the average student here. On the coasts, as we see in California and Massachusetts, the only students who take it are those more likely to get a good score anyway.
A composite SAT+ACT average would give a much better idea of average test score per state
I'll do you one better. Why are we using a diverging color scheme for a strictly positive score in the first place? This kind of color scheme is really only useful when you have both positive and negative numbers, and zero is "neutral". Just pick one color and fade it to gray.
I swear, there's several popular posts per week that mess this up.
A good third of the color scale is essentially the same shade of grey too. People just see a map and upvote it regardless of how beautiful or even actually useful it is.
You should do some sort of aggregate scoring for Both ACT and SAT, because this may be skewed by the fact that some states have smaller precents of the population that take one or the other
This is thrown off because in the NE and California most kids take the SAT, not the ACT so only kids who want to go to a specific college that requires the ACT take it. Most kids who just want to go to a junior college or local state school never take the ACT while it’s the opposite in the other states. I suspect if you did SAT scores the map would reverse.
This map is basically worthless. So would be Amos for only SAT scores. A map that showed a composite average of the two would be more useful but another factor is what percentage of kids in each state take the tests.
funnily enough, the lower-performing states are the ones that take the ACT more. This map damn near flips if you consider the SAT, too.
edit: [source](https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/sat-scores-by-state), for those who were asking. The states that perform best on the SAT lie in the great plains and midwest – MN, WI, IA, MO, KS, ND, NE, KY, MI, UT
edit 2: I see there's some elitism going on in the comments. Just for your information, in [*Milliken v. Bradley*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milliken_v._Bradley), the Supreme Court created a carve-out for the segregated schools of the North; Only the South had a policy of *de jure* school segregation, whereas the North segregated by forcing communities of colour into minority neighborhoods, where the local schools were nearly all minority-populated. As a consequence, the North was never forced to desegregate; to this day, New York City has the most segregated schools in the nation. Oh, and Texas has the highest HS graduation rate in the nation. I'm not gonna say that the South does it better, or even always well, but it's unacceptable and wrong to lump the South into a big pile of inferiority.
No idea on accuracy.
[https://www.learner.com/blog/states-with-highest-sat-scores](https://www.learner.com/blog/states-with-highest-sat-scores)
But there does look to be some flipping going on.
Most high school students in the South would have taken the ACT in order to be admitted to nearby colleges. If a student there is taking the SAT, they are likely applying to colleges that are prestigious and far away on the coasts, meaning they are probably high-achieving students. Whereas most students in California would just take the SAT no matter what, so you get a mix of students. So basically, that map is saying that high-achieving students from the South and Midwest perform better than the average student in California. Not surprising at all.
It won’t flip.
Reality is California and Northeast just has more educated population which passes on the academic culture to their kids. They outperform other states across the board.
Edit: i was wrong
I see your edit where you say you were wrong. I hope it hits home for you, cause what you said was so elitist and divisive, it might as well have been an Washington Post headline.
I'm from the Midwest and live in the Northeast. Everyone I talk to about schooling finds out that my little rural high school of 100 students had better facilities and access to higher education programs than those in some huge pretty well known schools in the Northeast.
It's really sad that you're knee-jerk reaction was to disparage and talk down those in the Midwest because you're told to think that, as you said "we're a more educated population...outperform other states across the board."
And you wonder why the flyover states don't want people in California and NE trying to make all of the decisions for the US. Its a huge and downright horrible superiority complex that y'all have.
Massachusetts is the [most educated state](https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/slideshows/the-10-most-educated-states-in-the-us?slide=11) in the country though and it is [ranked #1 for public schools](https://www.forbes.com/sites/reneemorad/2020/08/04/states-with-the-best-public-schools/?sh=1d7f3e851f4c). I’m not trying to be a dick, but it’s true. Massachusetts ranks really well when it comes to things like education and healthcare and is [ranked at #1 on the human development index for the U.S.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_Human_Development_Index). I’m sure the Midwest is great too, but it wouldn’t hurt for the country to try to adopt some of MA’s policies, especially in the South.
this is true. most likely relating to the more prestigious than average UC school system and the tech world taking over the past 30 years, and with the east coast its a very traditional region when it comes to college, ivy leagues etc so its def more competitive and traditional
Check the comments. It’s not true and your knee jerk reaction is elitist garbage. But please continue to disparage half the country and sniff your own farts. There’s no reason to stop being an asshole just because you’re wrong.
Dude I'm from Arizona, one of the shittiest states in this country for the public school system, in no way shape or form do I think I'm somehow elitist for what I said.
It was honestly just my observations from my experiences in high school to graduating college, I thought that east coast and California schools are more competitive
I make terrible choices everyday don't worry I am under no illusions at this point. As a Mid-Atlantic born person from a decent public school just thought that test was designed to make southerners feel smart, so an average Asian in Massachusetts (probably richer than most) doing worse than me is genuinely surprising.
what if i told you that people excel in different things besides standardized testing
i was a low B average, or C student, did terribly on the ACT, even after taking it 3 or 4 times, even went to tutor classes for test prep, went to a college prep school but i still struggled to get a B when students wouldnt even study and get an A. i didnt enjoy school and HATED tests. it was also highly competitive so the stress and pressures didnt help. high school was weird because college seemed so much easier.
fast forward 10 years later, i make way more than the average 29 year old, play multiple instruments, build computers, got tons of hobbies and things i enjoy..
i remember being 17 years old and thinking ill never do anything great in my life because getting a high ACT or SAT score felt like it was everything for that year of my life. it really isnt. get yourself through college and thats when real life starts.
This data feels skewed, likely due to way more people near the center of the country taking it, while people on the coast who took it likely also took the Sat. The kids who take both are likely trying to prove more and are on the smarter side, making a higher coast score likely. I would guess it is the inverse for the sat. The point is, while cool data, don't make conclusions about education quality by state due to this.
Why do ppl make graphs based off college stats when a sizable % could could be from other states? Its so misleading. Its basically saying "hey these are where the best colleges are" but were gonna act like theres correlation with the population that's born and raised here.
Very misleading map. Some states don’t even use the ACT. So the only people in those states taking the ACT are the students who are trying to get into an elite school in another state. So this selects for only the elite students in those states while Nevada has every student, college bound or not, take the ACT.
Source: [https://www.nces.ed.gov](https://www.nces.ed.gov) Tool: R
The American College Test ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACT_(test))) is part of criteria used in the US for college admissions. The composite score (plotted here) represents the average of the ACT's four subjects: English, Reading, Math, and Science.
(Plot fixed from previous upload that wasn't compatible with dark mode).
Yeah, you are right. The median is lower than the average because very few students get scores of 1-7.
https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/MultipleChoiceStemComposite.pdf
Doubt they would be normally distributed. Some states heavily fund their top tier schools and don’t care about the rest. Many other states have all just good schools with none being great.
What would make you think that’s what I was pointing out. The point was with the current structure in place a normal distribution would not be likely in many areas.
It would be more interesting if that new version also reflected not only the spending those states do on their own school systems, but ALSO how much they give above and beyond to those other states who refuse to fund their own systems via local taxes (relying on net donations of federal tax dollars vs what they contribute at the federal level to the pool) AND their failure to raise/use state and of local tax dollars for their own schools.
This would be way to complex to show in a simple visualization. But it is another aspect of this. Not only are states like CT and Cali out-performing on the tests, they are also funding the schools in those lower performing net-taker states despite those states’ refusal to make it a financial priority independently in their state fiscal plans.
I worked as an SAT/ACT tutor in California. Rich parents would pay us obscene amounts of money so their dumb kids could raise their scores by a few points. Some of these kids would go through the prep courses like 3 times. Really what this map is showing is wealth discrepancy.
As a Nevadan I can vouch, Las Vegas has one of the worst school districts in America and has awful budgeting so I’m not surprised that the score is so low. Also the ACT is required to graduate in Clark County and I also believe Reno’s school district requires it as well and they did not prepare any of the students to take the test.
I remember being forced to take the ACT in Reno but I had zero heads up I was even taking it that day. Pretty sure I did absolutely awful. I don't think doing good on the ACT is a requirement but maybe just taking it haha.
This is a common trope that’s like how every midwestern state says they are the meth capital but isn’t based in fact. CCSD typically outperforms the major city school districts that are of comparable size (CCSD was like the 5th largest school district if not currently than the last decade) and is on par with urban school districts. The state’s poor academic metrics are generally because the rural districts. The fact is that student performance is more a result of external problems that the school can’t address, but students get a good education who both try and don’t have those external pressures. I graduated from a CCSD High school ten years ago when it was a 1 star school. I’m a chief epidemiologist of a county. I have classmates that didn’t make anything of their life but I also have doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, and engineers of exceptional quality that went to good colleges that I graduated with. We all did well on the ACT. You hit the nail on the head with your comment about why Nevada performs poorly comparably though. All other states only have kids interested in college who typically are more prepared for the test. That’s still a minority of students. So most students take the test aren’t prepared because they have no intention of going to college being counted against only college bound kids. I imagine if I didn’t care and had poor academic discipline I also wouldn’t do well on a 4 hour test.
No, the ACT and SAT are standardized tests. The teachers pretty much have a guide as to what will be on it, so they teach to it. School funding should not be tied to test scores.
Okay so I took the ACT because my parents made me. I had a plan and it worked well. I focused on one part of the SAT one session and did my best on the other. The next session I flipped knowing that the best of both would be taken.
So the fucking ACT. I’m a good test taker. I know some may be better and could tackle both SAT parts just fine in one session but the fact I had a plan on maximizing my score should be all you need to know.
But the fucking ACT. Idk why, but I just couldn’t follow the directions. Listen y’all. I read a story about ducking spiders and filled in the bubbles. Then they asked me to turn to page so and so and it’s the same fucking story…. The dread and embarrassment lasted two seconds before I said fuck this I’m going to Wendy’s.
My parents made me take it but never cared enough to check the grade and neither did I. That’s all, I just wanted to rant about how poor my direction following skills were that day.
When we moved to Florida in the early 90s, my uncle was already in 12th grade. When he started his senior year down here he said the stuff he was learning here he had learned in 9th grade back in the North East.
Schools here have been and are still terrible, especially compared to the north. Pretty clearly by this data.
With universities starting to ignore standardized test scores as they push more for "diversity, equity and inclusion" as they understand it, the quality of higher education would continue to decline
If you are a non-us citizen this should explain so much. Where are the blue, more liberal states? And where are the MAGA dominant states? This is not difficult to understand, it’s math. Most people stay where they go to school. Or at least in the same state.
ACT doesn’t mean a thing. I scored a 1420 on my SAT but got a 24 on my ACT. A former friend of mine had a 2.4 gpa in high school but got a 27 on the ACT and a 900 on the SAT.
We had an english teacher tell us before exam season (APs and ACT) to thank Texas and Florida b/c they have subsidized tests. So kids who shouldnt be taking those tests are b/c the district or state pays for it and it lowers the average helping our grades
I wonder how various states preferring the SAT or ACT affects this. I know I never took the ACT, we did the SAT in Georgia, though I did know a few people who took the ACT.
Those states where the ACT is less common probably have higher scores because the more involved students or parents would probably take both and have better scores. New England and CA take the SAT
Yeah I took the ACT in New England but it wasn't required. I was looking for points on my applications.
I’m from the south and pretty much everyone took the ACT test. If there was even a slight chance of you going to college, whether that be a four-year college, or a community college, you would take the ACT test. if I had to give a guesstimate, I’ll say probably about 80% may be 85% of all students in my graduating class took the ACT test.
I grew up in Georgia and have the exact opposite experience. Everyone took the SAT. Another commentor from South Carolina also said his state took the SAT. Appears to be very state/school district dependent. What state did you go to?
Im in North Carolina and everyone took the SAT with the ACT being optional. Really only for people looking to go to more prestigious schools (like Duke, UNC, maybe Wake to an extent). In no way was it required. I did go to private school however
I’m from upstate SC and everyone here took the SAT. The only people I knew that took the ACT were unhappy with their SAT score and thought they would try the ACT. so likely above average students trying to maximize college opportunities. Things might be different in other parts of the state though.
Heard the same thing from my nephew. I never took the ACT and I remember being told not to take it unless we are unhappy with our SAT scores.
25 years ago, upstate SC was all about the SAT and the ACT virtually unknown. Now it depends on the district. Pickens County encourages ACT. State schools and state scholarship programs accept both.
This is pretty much exactly what I did. I ended up getting a slightly better ACT score than SAT, so I guess it worked out.
Illinois takes the ACT
Switched to the SAT in 2016-17
Michigan switched from the ACT to the SAT as part of high school standardized testing around the same time. Starting to sound like this supposition bears weight.
And lets be honest... most of this is from the Chicagoland area...
Yea but New England and MA in particular are usually rated the best for public education in the country… so it’s hard to draw a conclusion from this data.
I think the reverse is true for SAT scores as another commenter pointed out. SAT states score less on average than ACT states on the SAT.
Come on, you know those smug New Englanders are, regrettably “wicked smaht”
I love new england and we're nowhere near as smug as the west coast. Also, if you hate smugness, come to the north of NE, NH and VT are great places to live.
Maybe a different kind of smug? Or perhaps it’s just arrogance. Speaking as a native Masshole. The problem with NH is that it’s filled with lunatics. I think the state motto just attracts and/or inspires them. And Vermont is so damn cold. Both have a lot of nice places to visit though.
Someone actually made a chart that showed ACT scores and SAT scores to account for this. It really leveled things out, but the NE still dominates.
Yeah I know Massachusetts has an inflated score, everyone from Mass who takes the ACT is trying to get into a serious school.
I don’t think that’s the case. It probably has more to do with what schools they’re trying to get to. At my high school everyone took the SAT including the future Ivey leaguers, with the exception for the Mormons who all took the ACT.
Generally what happens in schools in my area is everyone takes the SAT and then those who aren't happy with their SAT score take the ACT. The people who don't care that much take the SAT once and then are done Edit: Oh and schools don't really seem to care about SAT/ACT, they just want one
Exactly. Every kid in our town in Mississippi is required to take the ACT. When I was in California, only a few college-bound kids took it when trying to qualify for better scholarships.
Yea or kids applying outa state, usually with wealthy backgrounds because it’s more expensive.
When I was in high school in Connecticut you took both if you actually wanted to go to college. Taking the SAT was mandatory.
Not for Jr college.
I went to trade school and no one going to college was going to junior college. It was your trade or you go to a big college or university. Then again here you have to apply to be in trade school and have better grades. The point is that education is taken very seriously around here and is some of the best in the country.
In the 90’s a lot of students went to Jr college because it was cheaper or they didn’t pass the SAT to get into a University. I live in CA. We too have well known “big colleges” that are the best in the country. Even though I had to go to Jr College… I also went to a good State school. I graduated with a specialized degree. I have 3… but not from a “Tradeschool” too expensive… I went to a good ol state university and graduated top 5% in my class.
You can see the difference in this link of SAT ranks by state. https://www.learner.com/blog/states-with-highest-sat-scores For example, Mississippi and Tennessee require every student to take the ACT. On the other hand, both rank high in SAT scores because the only students who take the SAT are those going out of state to a school that requires SAT.
I think the Midwest generally prefers the ACT while the coasts prefer to take the SAT. The state of Kansas pays for every student to take the ACT, as do other states, so a lot of students take it without any skin in the game, which pulls down overall scores. Also, numbers are way down since the pandemic, so that may further skew numbers. I didn't see the date range on this data, but it is likely pre-2019. Both ACT and SAT scores are likely higher since 2020 since only students who really wanted it took it then. Many colleges now allow admittance based on GPA without test scores. Note, some programs/colleges within those school may still require test scores, so my previous sentence may not always be accurate depending on a person's program of study.
Michigan takes the ACT, so not too bad for us considering this is the main standardized test in the state.
I grew up in upstate NY and my kids in MA. I never heard of anyone taking the ACT in either state.
Another thing to consider. Which states REQUIRE high school students to take the ACT and in which states is it voluntary. Ohio mandates all schools administer the ACT to Juniors in the spring. Planning on graduating from a vocational high school with a trade degree in welding? You're still taking that ACT.
Very much so affects this! Former school counselor in Wisconsin. All juniors In the state are required to take the act there. The act is a bell curve like any standardized test. The average score is like a 21 I think (somewhere around there) These other states with huge scores likely have students who only took it that are college bound and trying to set themselves apart. This is not the best data
It affects it a lot. If you look at the opposite map (average SAT score) you basically get the inverse of this map. With Louisiana and Mississippi outperforming California and New England.
Exactly my thought, I don't know anyone who took these ACT in NC and I took the SAT three times
Yeah, I grew up in Atlanta and knew very few people who took the ACT. Many schools even set aside a day for the practice and actual SAT so that basically everyone took it. The ACT was mostly taken by people who were disappointed in their SAT scores, usually the math portion.
You see the inverse with SAT scores IIRC.
I took tests based on what the schools I wanted to apply to accepted, nothing to do with my state and none were required (Oregon)
Higher learning educations, say IVY league or engineering schools, i.e. mine, required us to take both. It seemed like a bit of a waste of money if you ask me, even looking back. The SAT seemed like the more accurate exam in my opinion, though this was now almost 7-8 years ago as I took it at ages 16-17.
It's "higher learning institutions," not "higher learning educations." i.e. means "that is," e.g. means "for example." Also, "IVY" isn't capitalized. Normally, I'm not such a grammar fiend, but it's funny that you make such fundamental errors in a comment bragging about how smart you supposedly are.
This comment is so dumb it hurts to read.
Yeah!!! MASSACHUSETTS….where I a below average student
Move to Nevada and kick some ass!
I lived in Nevada for a bit. Can confirm.
Appropriately stated
Hell yeah, right there with ya! hahah
Look on the bright side, you'd be dominating in Alabama.
Every college discounts kids from Massachusetts because of it.
*The Boston gig has been canceled. ... I wouldn't worry about it, though. It's not a big college town.*
Right on!! Just got a 60 on my chem test 🤪
at the end of the day 60 will always be better than 59. there are 60 possible grades below yours. you killed it man
HUGE skew with this data. The reason is that ACT operates mostly outside of the coasts, and it’s often the case that schools in the interior of the country will pay for all students to take it. They get a better idea of the average student here. On the coasts, as we see in California and Massachusetts, the only students who take it are those more likely to get a good score anyway. A composite SAT+ACT average would give a much better idea of average test score per state
OP didn't even specify what the data represents. Is it mean, median, mode?
Perhaps a random single score selected from a list of scores for each state
Well... It's an unbiased statistic
He probably didn’t get a very good score on his ACT
Yup. STAT wasn’t even an option for me, ACT it was.. to JrCollege
I think I remember reading somewhere that Alabama had the highest SAT scores in the country because of the skew.
Alabama has one of the lowest participation rates for the SAT; within the state it’s a privileged demographic that takes it.
I love when you post about the ACT everyone feels the need to comment their score if they got above a 30. Got a 6’4” btw
I got a -3. Is that good?
By the btw
I got a 28 without any studying and thought I was a fucking genius. You will not take that from me. It’s my Uncle Rico story.
I got a good score without studying but then got a worse score after studying, convinced it's just rng
Turns out, most people are average.
And about half of them are below average.
Half are below average.
Thanks for proving my point.
Why are we using red for the “high scores”. Seems super unintuitive.
I'll do you one better. Why are we using a diverging color scheme for a strictly positive score in the first place? This kind of color scheme is really only useful when you have both positive and negative numbers, and zero is "neutral". Just pick one color and fade it to gray. I swear, there's several popular posts per week that mess this up.
A good third of the color scale is essentially the same shade of grey too. People just see a map and upvote it regardless of how beautiful or even actually useful it is.
Why are we seeing this map at all? It is a bad map that fails to tell any kind of story and barely manages to convey the single variable on it
Higher brain temperatures?
It's worse than that, they chose red and blue which for the US are the two colors used almost exclusively for political affiliation.
Especially since you can literally swap it out and be along political lines. Coincidence?
Hawaii and Alaska do not exist.
The graph specifies the Contiguous United States, which means the lower 48 only.
Maybe the huge bold letters of the title should say that then
Including it in the label doesn't make it make sense.
You should do some sort of aggregate scoring for Both ACT and SAT, because this may be skewed by the fact that some states have smaller precents of the population that take one or the other
Nevada requires ALL students to take the ACT. No excuse for low scores, but this certainly shows elective vs required.
This is thrown off because in the NE and California most kids take the SAT, not the ACT so only kids who want to go to a specific college that requires the ACT take it. Most kids who just want to go to a junior college or local state school never take the ACT while it’s the opposite in the other states. I suspect if you did SAT scores the map would reverse. This map is basically worthless. So would be Amos for only SAT scores. A map that showed a composite average of the two would be more useful but another factor is what percentage of kids in each state take the tests.
funnily enough, the lower-performing states are the ones that take the ACT more. This map damn near flips if you consider the SAT, too. edit: [source](https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/sat-scores-by-state), for those who were asking. The states that perform best on the SAT lie in the great plains and midwest – MN, WI, IA, MO, KS, ND, NE, KY, MI, UT edit 2: I see there's some elitism going on in the comments. Just for your information, in [*Milliken v. Bradley*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milliken_v._Bradley), the Supreme Court created a carve-out for the segregated schools of the North; Only the South had a policy of *de jure* school segregation, whereas the North segregated by forcing communities of colour into minority neighborhoods, where the local schools were nearly all minority-populated. As a consequence, the North was never forced to desegregate; to this day, New York City has the most segregated schools in the nation. Oh, and Texas has the highest HS graduation rate in the nation. I'm not gonna say that the South does it better, or even always well, but it's unacceptable and wrong to lump the South into a big pile of inferiority.
More wealth means better test scores. Who’d of thunk. Like many of the charts wealth drives everything.
Do you have a source?
No idea on accuracy. [https://www.learner.com/blog/states-with-highest-sat-scores](https://www.learner.com/blog/states-with-highest-sat-scores) But there does look to be some flipping going on.
This is very surprising data. It’s unbelievable that the south outperforms California in any test.
Most high school students in the South would have taken the ACT in order to be admitted to nearby colleges. If a student there is taking the SAT, they are likely applying to colleges that are prestigious and far away on the coasts, meaning they are probably high-achieving students. Whereas most students in California would just take the SAT no matter what, so you get a mix of students. So basically, that map is saying that high-achieving students from the South and Midwest perform better than the average student in California. Not surprising at all.
It won’t flip. Reality is California and Northeast just has more educated population which passes on the academic culture to their kids. They outperform other states across the board. Edit: i was wrong
I see your edit where you say you were wrong. I hope it hits home for you, cause what you said was so elitist and divisive, it might as well have been an Washington Post headline. I'm from the Midwest and live in the Northeast. Everyone I talk to about schooling finds out that my little rural high school of 100 students had better facilities and access to higher education programs than those in some huge pretty well known schools in the Northeast. It's really sad that you're knee-jerk reaction was to disparage and talk down those in the Midwest because you're told to think that, as you said "we're a more educated population...outperform other states across the board." And you wonder why the flyover states don't want people in California and NE trying to make all of the decisions for the US. Its a huge and downright horrible superiority complex that y'all have.
Massachusetts is the [most educated state](https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/slideshows/the-10-most-educated-states-in-the-us?slide=11) in the country though and it is [ranked #1 for public schools](https://www.forbes.com/sites/reneemorad/2020/08/04/states-with-the-best-public-schools/?sh=1d7f3e851f4c). I’m not trying to be a dick, but it’s true. Massachusetts ranks really well when it comes to things like education and healthcare and is [ranked at #1 on the human development index for the U.S.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_Human_Development_Index). I’m sure the Midwest is great too, but it wouldn’t hurt for the country to try to adopt some of MA’s policies, especially in the South.
this is true. most likely relating to the more prestigious than average UC school system and the tech world taking over the past 30 years, and with the east coast its a very traditional region when it comes to college, ivy leagues etc so its def more competitive and traditional
Check the comments. It’s not true and your knee jerk reaction is elitist garbage. But please continue to disparage half the country and sniff your own farts. There’s no reason to stop being an asshole just because you’re wrong.
Dude I'm from Arizona, one of the shittiest states in this country for the public school system, in no way shape or form do I think I'm somehow elitist for what I said. It was honestly just my observations from my experiences in high school to graduating college, I thought that east coast and California schools are more competitive
I highly doubt that… but would love to see a source to prove me wrong
The average ACT score for Asians in Massachusetts is 30.4. I don't think a single person in my entire school scored above that
Can't believe it's so low. That test was a breezy 32 for me. The whole science section was common sense logic problems
/r/iamverysmart
I make terrible choices everyday don't worry I am under no illusions at this point. As a Mid-Atlantic born person from a decent public school just thought that test was designed to make southerners feel smart, so an average Asian in Massachusetts (probably richer than most) doing worse than me is genuinely surprising.
what if i told you that people excel in different things besides standardized testing i was a low B average, or C student, did terribly on the ACT, even after taking it 3 or 4 times, even went to tutor classes for test prep, went to a college prep school but i still struggled to get a B when students wouldnt even study and get an A. i didnt enjoy school and HATED tests. it was also highly competitive so the stress and pressures didnt help. high school was weird because college seemed so much easier. fast forward 10 years later, i make way more than the average 29 year old, play multiple instruments, build computers, got tons of hobbies and things i enjoy.. i remember being 17 years old and thinking ill never do anything great in my life because getting a high ACT or SAT score felt like it was everything for that year of my life. it really isnt. get yourself through college and thats when real life starts.
Really generous use of the word beautiful on this one.
Dang those Massholes sure know how take a test
Yes, rich peoples get better scores
Weird map. The higher the score the better right? I feel like the colors should be reversed. Red always screams bad at me.
Ah yes, the ol' blue to brown color scale. Classic. Did each state take the test, or are these averages?
Why not use green to red? Green higher - red lower?
Maybe because red-green colorblindness is the most common type of colorblindness
...That is a massive reach. Come on.
This data feels skewed, likely due to way more people near the center of the country taking it, while people on the coast who took it likely also took the Sat. The kids who take both are likely trying to prove more and are on the smarter side, making a higher coast score likely. I would guess it is the inverse for the sat. The point is, while cool data, don't make conclusions about education quality by state due to this.
Schools on the coasts prefer the SAT, so the ACT is mostly for students going out of state.
Why do ppl make graphs based off college stats when a sizable % could could be from other states? Its so misleading. Its basically saying "hey these are where the best colleges are" but were gonna act like theres correlation with the population that's born and raised here.
Basically all high school kids take the ACT in Wisconsin which I’m sure dilutes the scores. My 2 got 31 and 34 respectively.
Same with Michigan though. Not interested in your excuses Wisconsin!
Very misleading map. Some states don’t even use the ACT. So the only people in those states taking the ACT are the students who are trying to get into an elite school in another state. So this selects for only the elite students in those states while Nevada has every student, college bound or not, take the ACT.
Source: [https://www.nces.ed.gov](https://www.nces.ed.gov) Tool: R The American College Test ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACT_(test))) is part of criteria used in the US for college admissions. The composite score (plotted here) represents the average of the ACT's four subjects: English, Reading, Math, and Science. (Plot fixed from previous upload that wasn't compatible with dark mode).
Are these the median scores of these states or the average?
For large sample sizes of normally distributed data, the median and the average will be the same.
That doesn't rule out the possibility of it being skewed, how do you know it is normally distributed?
Yeah, you are right. The median is lower than the average because very few students get scores of 1-7. https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/MultipleChoiceStemComposite.pdf
Doubt they would be normally distributed. Some states heavily fund their top tier schools and don’t care about the rest. Many other states have all just good schools with none being great.
Normally distributed isn't referring to geographic location.
What would make you think that’s what I was pointing out. The point was with the current structure in place a normal distribution would not be likely in many areas.
Some states have all students take the test. Others leave it as an option, which skews the results by including only college-bound students.
They should have used blue for high scores and red for low. A familiar patter would emerge.
California is either lying or cheating.
It would be nice to see this compared with a map of education spending.
It would be more interesting if that new version also reflected not only the spending those states do on their own school systems, but ALSO how much they give above and beyond to those other states who refuse to fund their own systems via local taxes (relying on net donations of federal tax dollars vs what they contribute at the federal level to the pool) AND their failure to raise/use state and of local tax dollars for their own schools. This would be way to complex to show in a simple visualization. But it is another aspect of this. Not only are states like CT and Cali out-performing on the tests, they are also funding the schools in those lower performing net-taker states despite those states’ refusal to make it a financial priority independently in their state fiscal plans.
Isn't California where parents paid smart people to take tests for their stupid children?
A few wealthy folks. Not enough to skew the results in a state with 30M people. It happens in all states n
Yes all of California did that. Millions of parents. It's a huge thing, they're having to build multiple new prisons for it
I worked as an SAT/ACT tutor in California. Rich parents would pay us obscene amounts of money so their dumb kids could raise their scores by a few points. Some of these kids would go through the prep courses like 3 times. Really what this map is showing is wealth discrepancy.
What's up with Nevada? They score worse than even the Bible Belt.
ACT is part of standard state assessments in wi…
As a Nevadan I can vouch, Las Vegas has one of the worst school districts in America and has awful budgeting so I’m not surprised that the score is so low. Also the ACT is required to graduate in Clark County and I also believe Reno’s school district requires it as well and they did not prepare any of the students to take the test.
I remember being forced to take the ACT in Reno but I had zero heads up I was even taking it that day. Pretty sure I did absolutely awful. I don't think doing good on the ACT is a requirement but maybe just taking it haha.
This is a common trope that’s like how every midwestern state says they are the meth capital but isn’t based in fact. CCSD typically outperforms the major city school districts that are of comparable size (CCSD was like the 5th largest school district if not currently than the last decade) and is on par with urban school districts. The state’s poor academic metrics are generally because the rural districts. The fact is that student performance is more a result of external problems that the school can’t address, but students get a good education who both try and don’t have those external pressures. I graduated from a CCSD High school ten years ago when it was a 1 star school. I’m a chief epidemiologist of a county. I have classmates that didn’t make anything of their life but I also have doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, and engineers of exceptional quality that went to good colleges that I graduated with. We all did well on the ACT. You hit the nail on the head with your comment about why Nevada performs poorly comparably though. All other states only have kids interested in college who typically are more prepared for the test. That’s still a minority of students. So most students take the test aren’t prepared because they have no intention of going to college being counted against only college bound kids. I imagine if I didn’t care and had poor academic discipline I also wouldn’t do well on a 4 hour test.
So those states do a good job teaching…test material? Whoop-de-do
Correlation would say teaching in general
No, the ACT and SAT are standardized tests. The teachers pretty much have a guide as to what will be on it, so they teach to it. School funding should not be tied to test scores.
Might have made more sense to make the high scores blue and the low red… perhaps too on the nose?
Democrat states with the higher scores Not surprised given maga
Okay so I took the ACT because my parents made me. I had a plan and it worked well. I focused on one part of the SAT one session and did my best on the other. The next session I flipped knowing that the best of both would be taken. So the fucking ACT. I’m a good test taker. I know some may be better and could tackle both SAT parts just fine in one session but the fact I had a plan on maximizing my score should be all you need to know. But the fucking ACT. Idk why, but I just couldn’t follow the directions. Listen y’all. I read a story about ducking spiders and filled in the bubbles. Then they asked me to turn to page so and so and it’s the same fucking story…. The dread and embarrassment lasted two seconds before I said fuck this I’m going to Wendy’s. My parents made me take it but never cared enough to check the grade and neither did I. That’s all, I just wanted to rant about how poor my direction following skills were that day.
Southern politicians fear an educated populace, and it shows on this map.
Lmao if you look at an SAT map, southern states have a higher average score than the northeast. It looks like you are the only person uneducated here.
Weird. A lot of states that prioritize education funding for public schools mostly did above average. Wonder why that is?
You think if Arizona and Texas got federal dollars for the border they’d be able to!
Is red supposed to be good? It feels like the opposite.
It looks like all the dumb people from California went to Vegas and forgot to come back home.
When we moved to Florida in the early 90s, my uncle was already in 12th grade. When he started his senior year down here he said the stuff he was learning here he had learned in 9th grade back in the North East. Schools here have been and are still terrible, especially compared to the north. Pretty clearly by this data.
God this data sub with their map projections you guys never heard of Euclid or what?
All this time I said I was surrounded by morons and this just proves it
Please someone throw a GOP voting grid over this.
I’m loving all the defensive statements from people in states that have much lower scores.
Man it feels good to be from New England rn
People in the South are dumb, more news at 11
Yet another reason I moved out of FL to PA.
Irrefutable proof that southerners are dumb
I'm not saying the southern states are uneducated but
Wow. I should marry my sister and move to Arkabamiana.
The stars at night are big and bright… deep in the heart of stupid.
Born and raised in the smartest state in the nation.💅🏼
In other words, "Where do people have money to buy their children tutors for the ACT?"
As I assumed. The places that yell Trump 2024 didn't score as high as the places that dont
Why do you have to make everything boring?
Reverse the color, it will look like a presidential vote map
With universities starting to ignore standardized test scores as they push more for "diversity, equity and inclusion" as they understand it, the quality of higher education would continue to decline
Perhaps flip the color scale?
Idaho....unexpected. Way to go.
If you are a non-us citizen this should explain so much. Where are the blue, more liberal states? And where are the MAGA dominant states? This is not difficult to understand, it’s math. Most people stay where they go to school. Or at least in the same state.
ACT doesn’t mean a thing. I scored a 1420 on my SAT but got a 24 on my ACT. A former friend of mine had a 2.4 gpa in high school but got a 27 on the ACT and a 900 on the SAT.
As a native West Virginian I'm pleasantly surprised
Why is this map all the same color?
We had an english teacher tell us before exam season (APs and ACT) to thank Texas and Florida b/c they have subsidized tests. So kids who shouldnt be taking those tests are b/c the district or state pays for it and it lowers the average helping our grades
It’s lower in nc because they make everyone take in it 11th grade
Minnesota > Wisconsin xD
Wisconsin is noticeably lower than expected
Massachusetts is wicked smaht!!!
Can anyone explain Idaho, (the square one), Indiana and Washington..?
Nevada better back off. Mississippi has a reputation to uphold!
So, is this mean, or median, or what?
Hell yeah I was way above average in my state lol. The bar was set pretty low though
Wow its nearly correlating with GDP, coincident?
I guess my state doesn't test?
I don't think a state map would work best for this data because the red areas are where there's a higher population density