The National average ACT score for the Class of 2015 has remained the same for the past year, but the ETHS score has increased by 0.9 and is the highest it’s ever been at 23.9.

“There’s something really exciting going on at ETHS, and I just know students are feeling it,” said Superintendent Eric Witherspoon. “We’re part of a school where students are taking their educations more seriously, applying themselves more, and trying to do better.”

In ETHS’s 43 year recorded history of average composite ACT scores, only nine times has the school’s average been above a 23, and eight of those nine times have been in the past eight years. The highest recorded ACT scores before this year’s were in 2009 and 2010, at 23.5.

In 2002, Illinois passed a law making it mandatory that all juniors take the ACT, no matter their post high school path. Previously, only students who intended to apply to competitive colleges took it, and the average composite score hovered around a 22.

“So today, in an era when everybody takes it, not just people self-selecting to go to colleges, we got the highest scores we’ve ever had in this school,” said Witherspoon.

Many people argue that the test is somehow easier becauese ETHS is recording higher and higher scores each year, but that’s actually false.

According to thecollegesolution.com, when more difficult and complicated subjects are taught in school, the ACT must adapt to mirror that, meaning that the ACT is getting harder as students across America get smarter.

The Class of 2015 was the last class in Illinois where the ACT was mandated for all juniors, but while some schools will fall back into old methods of making it optional, nothing will change for ETHS. “We continued it and we’re going to continue it in the foreseeable future,” said Witherspoon.

The school’s theory for continuing to make all juniors take the ACT relates to the fact that it opens doors in the future for students.

“Let’s say that some of our students have no intention of going to college right now, but three years from now they’ve been out of school and they decide they do want to go, they’ve already gotten the ACT taken care of.”

“It’s great to see that as a school our academic talent is shining through increasing ACT scores,” said senior Matteo Di Bernardo.

The administration is hopeful and confident that the Class of 2016’s scores will be similar to the ones just released, and that the school will benefit from these recent increases.

“Success breeds success,” Witherspoon said. “And when you’re in higher expectations, a higher achievement environment, it actually nurtures and supports more success and more achievement.”