BATON ROUGE - Louisiana's high school students performed below the national average on the ACT college readiness test.

  

Figures released Thursday by the Iowa group that administers the test show the latest average score among all states was 21. Louisiana's average was 19.5.

  

The test measures how students perform in English, reading, math and science. A perfect score is 36.

  

Louisiana announced in August that public high school students had a composite score of 19.6, but state-by-state ACT rankings include both public and private high school students.

  

The Advocate reports Louisiana students ranked 43rd in average ACT score and 10th out of the 17 states where all students are required to take the exam.

  

Minnesota leads among states where 100 percent of high school graduates took the ACT, with a 21.5 average score.