This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Utah schools have one less thing to brag about after new ACT scores were released Wednesday.

For the past two years, students in the Beehive State have earned the highest average score on the college entrance exam when compared with other states where all students are tested.

But new ACT data show Utah slipped from an average of 20.8 to 20.2 in 2015, and fell from first to fifth place among the 13 states where all high school students take the test.

"While I'm pleased to see we're doing a better job of getting more Utah students to take the ACT, there's no doubt there is work ahead of us in getting more of those students fully prepared to succeed in college and careers," State Superintendent of Public Instruction Brad Smith said in a prepared statement.

A total of 40,629 Utah students took the ACT — a bump of 14 percent since 2014. The test is scored on a scale of 1 to 36 and the national average score in 2015 was 21.

The ACT overtook the SAT as the nation's most popular college entrance exam in 2012. This year, 1.9 million students — or 59 percent of the nation's 2015 graduating class — took the ACT.

Since 2011, Utah's average ACT score regularly has fallen below the national average, but state education managers say the comparison between full-participation states is a better indication of performance because it represents the entire student population and not just college-bound students who voluntarily complete the exam.

"We're getting everyone involved, and typically when that happens, scores have a tendency to go down," said Rich Nye, associate state superintendent of data, assessment and accountability.

Utah started testing all high school students in 2011. State lawmakers backed the practice in 2013.

Since then, ACT participation has increased, Nye said, but not enough to fully account for the recent decline in performance.

"I don't want to make excuses for our point drop," he said. "We want to own that, and we want to evaluate our systems, our public education system."

In addition to calculating a state's average score, ACT sets "college-ready" benchmarks for each of its four test subjects — English, reading, math and science — which represent a 50 percent likelihood that a student will earn a B grade or higher in an entry-level college course.

In Utah, 59 percent of students reached the college readiness benchmark in English, but only 23 percent earned the benchmark in all four subjects.

Utah's benchmark rates are below the national average and, with the exception of science, have fallen since full-participation testing started four years ago.

While state education leaders want to increase college-readiness rates, Nye said a low score on the ACT is not necessarily an academic dead end for college-bound students.

"Whether a student gets an 18 or a 36," he said, "they can still be successful in college."

And because students traditionally take the ACT as juniors, Nye said, the scores don't fully capture their status on graduation day.

"Kids are still in school," he said. "There's still a lot of time to help them prepare for college."

David Buhler, Utah's commissioner of higher education, said he wasn't surprised by the state's ACT scores, which illustrate the work that needs to be done to increase college readiness.

"It's a shared responsibility between K-12 and higher education," he said, "and a shared concern that we would all like to see students performing better."

The latest ACT scores for the state show the benefit of a rigorous high school course load, Buhler added.

Students who elected to take a fourth year of math and a combination of biology, chemistry and physics — not required for graduation but recommended by the Utah System of Higher Education — were more likely to reach the ACT's college-readiness benchmarks.

"The choices that high school students make," Buhler said, "make all the difference in how well-prepared they are for college or for a career."

Smith said he was encouraged by the 13,000 Utah students who indicated an interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics in a survey that accompanies the ACT exam. But he also was concerned about how few reached the college-readiness benchmarks in those areas.

"We will be working with our friends in higher education to look more deeply into this data," Smith said, "to see how we can improve outcomes for all of our students."

bwood@sltrib.com Percentage of Utah students meeting ACT's college-readiness benchmarks:

English — 59 percent

Reading — 44 percent

Math — 34 percent

Science — 34 percent

All four subjects — 23 percent