The Condition of College and Career Readiness 2018, the ACT’s yearly report says the national average score on the ACT was 20.1. Alabama was just below that, at 19.1 on average. The Alabama Department of Public Education says this is only the fifth year every 11th grader in the state was required to take the ACT. They say in 2014, just 80 percent of 11th graders were tested, and now that all students in that grade level are being tested it “traditionally brings down scores because of broader amounts of test takers.” State School Superintendent Eric Mackey says new measures that are now in place will bring up Alabama's ACT score.