North Dakota students score perfect on ACT test

 

State School Superintendent Kirsten Baesler on Friday congratulated nine North Dakota seniors who earned perfect 36 composite scores on their ACT exams during their time in high school.

“It is a rare event for a student to get the highest score possible on the ACT. It takes study and hard work as well as intellectual gifts. We all should be proud of the North Dakota students who were able to accomplish this,” Baesler said.  “These nine students are truly among our best and brightest.”

The seniors who registered perfect ACT scores during their North Dakota high school careers are: Kali Bjornson (Devils Lake High School), Philip Dowdell (Fargo North), Alexander Heiser (Bismarck Century), Sean Joyce (Bismarck Legacy), Aiden Krogh (Grand Forks Red River), Joanna Lin (Fargo Davies), Forrest Weintraub (Fargo Davies), Allen Wu (Fargo Davies), and Ellie Zentner, who took the ACT last year as a junior at Bismarck Century. Zentner is now a senior at Elkhorn South High School in Omaha, Neb.

State law requires North Dakota high school juniors to take the ACT or WorkKeys assessments. The ACT test can be taken more than once. Students are scored separately in math, science, English, and reading, and those results are used to compile a composite score, which can range from 1 to 36.

Last year, 7,254 North Dakota high school juniors took the ACT, registering an average composite score of 19.3. An ACT composite of 24 or greater is needed to qualify for a North Dakota academic scholarship, which is a program established by the state Legislature that offers up to $6,000 in tuition assistance during a recipient’s college career.