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Uni High class earns highest average ACT score
John
Hedeman, University Laboratory High School
(217) 333-2870; jdhedeman@uni.uiuc.edu
Jeff
Unger, News Bureau
(217) 333-1085;j-unger@illinois.edu
8/22/2001
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The
2001 graduating class of University Laboratory High School, the laboratory
school of the University of Illinois, achieved the highest average composite
score in the nation on the ACT exam, among U.S. high schools with 30
or more students from that class taking the exam.
More than 45 students in the 2001 class at University Laboratory High
School took the ACT exam, earning an average composite score of 31.6.
Uni High also recorded the highest average composite score in the nation
in 1997.
The ACT assessment is one of the two major standardized college entrance
exams taken by U.S. high school students. It consists of four multiple-choice
tests of educational development – English, mathematics, reading
and science reasoning. The highest possible composite score that a student
can earn on the test is 36.
Across the nation, 8,976 high schools had 30 or more 2001 graduates
take the exam.
In Illinois, the 2001 average ACT composite score was 21.6, while the
national average ACT composite score was 21. Graduating classes at the
laboratory school have earned average composite scores above 29 in each
of the past nine years.
"Uni High students work exceptionally hard and are committed to
academic achievement," said John Hedeman, principal and director
of Uni High. "We are proud of all of our students because each
one of them contributed to this national recognition."
Other than its regular academic curriculum, Uni High doesn’t offer
any specific courses to prepare students for the ACT exam. During their
sophomore year, students can elect to take the PLAN exam, a test similar
to the ACT that is offered to high schools across the nation by ACT
Inc. Nearly 100 percent of the school’s students elect to take
the exam.
Established in 1921 as part of the curriculum laboratory, a research
unit of the
U. of I. College of Education, Uni High serves as a site for curriculum
research while providing a model college-preparatory program for academically
gifted students. The school counts three Nobel Prize winners and a Pulitzer
Prize winner among its alumni.
Students at Uni High take a five-year accelerated high school curriculum
that begins with the subfreshman year, a combined seventh- and eighth-grade
experience thought to be the oldest gifted education experiment in the
country. The school’s fall enrollment is expected to be about 300
students.
As a laboratory school, Uni High is a public school eligible for state
aid, but because its enrollment is not determined by residence, the
school does not receive any local property- or corporate-tax support.
Additional funds are provided by parents, alumni and friends, as well
as from corporate sources and grants.
