ACT College Readiness Test Scores

Average ACT college-admissions test scores and number of students tested, by Georgia school, district, and ACT section, 2004-2024.

Source: GOSA
Year coverage: 2004–2024
Updated: annual
Version: 1.0.0
Schema hash: 066aaae84c46

Detail levels available

StateDistrictSchool · default

Overview

Average ACT scaled scores (1-36) and number of students tested for Georgia public schools, with official district and state rollups, by ACT test component. Covers graduating-class ACT results published by GOSA from 2004 through 2024.

Row grain: One row per year, district_code, school_code, test_component.

Key metric

avg_score — Average Score (score, 1–36)

The single headline value most answers want.

JSON schema →Data contract (YAML) →

Variables

Every column in the fact table. The code is the exact field name the API returns.

Column	Type	Unit	Range	Null?	Description
`year`Year	integer	—	—	no	Reporting year. For 2011-2024 this is the spring (ending) calendar year of the school year in the source's LONG_SCHOOL_YEAR; for 2004-2010 the source carries no year column and the filename publication year is used. Full description▾ Reporting year. For 2011-2024 this is the spring (ending) calendar year of the school year in the source's LONG_SCHOOL_YEAR; for 2004-2010 the source carries no year column and the filename publication year is used.
`district_code`District Code	string	—	—	yes	GOSA district code (FK to districts dimension): 3-digit zero-padded county/city codes or 7-digit state-charter codes. NULL on state-level rows. Full description▾ GOSA district code (FK to districts dimension): 3-digit zero-padded county/city codes or 7-digit state-charter codes. NULL on state-level rows. Joins districts; adds its label columns.
`school_code`School Code	string	—	—	yes	GOSA school code, zero-padded to 4 characters (composite FK to schools dimension with district_code; not globally unique on its own). NULL on district- and state-level rows. Full description▾ GOSA school code, zero-padded to 4 characters (composite FK to schools dimension with district_code; not globally unique on its own). NULL on district- and state-level rows. Joins schools; adds its label columns.
`test_component`Test Component	string	—	—	no	Which ACT section the score covers: composite (overall), english, mathematics, reading, science, or writing. Full description▾ ACT section. composite, english, mathematics, reading, and science are reported in all years (2004-2010 label science as 'Science Reasoning'); writing_subscore appears from 2011 onward; combined_english_writing only in 2011-2015 (students who took both English and the optional Writing section). 7 allowed values▾ `combined_english_writing` `composite` `english` `mathematics` `reading` `science` `writing_subscore`
`num_tested`Number Tested	integer	count	—	yes	Number of students tested. 2004-2010 sources publish one count per school/district/state entity, which is repeated on each of that entity's five test_component rows; 2011-2024 sources publish true per-component counts. In either case, summing num_tested across test_component double-counts students — filter to one component (typically composite) for headcounts. Full description▾ Number of students tested. 2004-2010 sources publish one count per school/district/state entity, which is repeated on each of that entity's five test_component rows; 2011-2024 sources publish true per-component counts. In either case, summing num_tested across test_component double-counts students — filter to one component (typically composite) for headcounts.
`avg_score`Average Score	number	score	1–36	yes	Average ACT scaled score on the 1-36 scale (writing subscore uses a 2-12 scale, except 2016); higher is better. Full description▾ Average ACT scaled score. The 1-36 ACT scale applies to every test_component except writing_subscore, which the source reports on the ACT writing domain 2-12 scale (typical statewide averages 6-7) in every year EXCEPT 2016: ACT's September 2015-June 2016 'enhanced writing' window reported writing on a 1-36 scale, so 2016 writing_subscore values run 11.8-23.1 (mean ~17.2) vs 4.2-8.5 in all other years — do not read 2016 as a writing-performance jump in time series. The [1, 36] range check below bounds all components and years. NULL when GOSA suppressed the value (too few test-takers). Known source defects NULLed by the transform per data-cleaning-standards §4b (rows and num_tested preserved): (a) the 2006 publication reported 10 impossible values of 36.9-41.5 (above the ACT scale maximum of 36) across the five sections for Campbell High School (district 633, school 1054) and Cedar Grove High School (district 644, school 0172) — any avg_score outside [1, 36] is NULLed; (b) the 2009 Atlanta City district rows (district 761) published scores of 34.2-35.5 while the district's own school rows bound every section at or below 17.7 — the five district avg_score values are NULLed (num_tested 949 is consistent with the school rows and preserved). This revises the preserve-bronze default for this column; the 1-36 range check below remains enforceable because of it.

Filters

Query parameters the fact endpoint accepts. Comma-separated values are OR within a parameter; multiple parameters AND together.

Parameter	Kind	Allowed values	Notes
`year`	year_exact	any value	—
`year_min`	year_range	any value	—
`year_max`	year_range	any value	—
`detail`	detail	`districtsschoolsstates`	enum-enforced, default: schools
`district_code`	foreign_key	any value	multi-value
`school_code`	foreign_key	any value	multi-value
`test_component`	categorical	7 allowed values▾ `combined_english_writing` `composite` `english` `mathematics` `reading` `science` `writing_subscore`	multi-value, enum-enforced, pick one
`district_type`	dimension_attribute	7 allowed values▾ `commission_charter` `resa` `standard` `state_agency` `state_charter` `state_school` `state_special`	multi-value, enum-enforced

Example requests

Run these against the base URL — they return live data.

All rows (first page), schools level

curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/education/act_scores"

schools data for 2024

curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/education/act_scores?year=2024"

Filtered to test_component = combined_english_writing for 2024

curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/education/act_scores?year=2024&test_component=combined_english_writing"

One district (code 601), 2024

curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/education/act_scores?district_code=601&year=2024&detail=districts"

Download 2024 as CSV

curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/education/act_scores?year=2024&format=csv"

Notes & limitations

NULL handling

Suppressed cells (too few students to report) are NULL, never zero.
Zero is a real, reported value.

Limitations

Suppressed cells are NULL (not zero). State rows have NULL district_code and school_code. District rows have NULL school_code. 2010 caveat: the 2010 source's district-total rows are internally inconsistent with its own school rows (~30 districts' published means fall outside the feasible range implied by their school rows, in both directions; the 2010 state count is also an outlier vs adjacent years); the reporting basis is unknown and the published rows are preserved unchanged — use 2010 district aggregates with caution. 2016 writing_subscore is on a 1-36 scale (ACT's 'enhanced writing' window) vs the 2-12 writing domain scale in every other year.