BATON ROUGE - Louisiana's public high school students performed slightly better on the ACT college readiness test in the most recent results, continuing a trend of improvement for the last four years.

  

The state education department said Wednesday the average composite score for students during the last school year reached 19.6, edging up from 19.5 in 2016. The average has gradually increased from 19.1 since the 2012-13 school year.

  

Public school graduates have been required to take the ACT since 2013. The scores are used to grade public schools and school districts.

  

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

  

Louisiana's education department says a record number of seniors who graduated in 2017 earned a score of 18 or higher, considered a "college-going" score.