Lawrence public schools 2005 ACT scores are down, but remain above state and national averages.

“Given the comparisons, I thought we did pretty well,” said Free State High School Principal Joe Snyder.

Lawrence High School Principal Steve Nilhas said there was more work to be done.

“They’re above the state and national average,” Nilhas said. But “that’s really not good enough for Lawrence and certainly not good enough for Lawrence High.”

The ACT is a curriculum-based test in English, reading, math and science.

Colleges use the scores for admissions criteria.

In 2005, 514 Lawrence students took the test, up slightly from 2004, when 509 students were tested.

The district average is 22.8 points out of 36 possible points.

It bested the state average of 21.7 and the national average of 20.9.

The district average was 0.9 points lower than the year before. Lawrence High’s average was 22.2, down from 23.2 in 2004.

Free State’s High’s average was 23.3, compared with 24.2 last year.

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At Bishop Seabury Academy, where about 20 students took the ACT, the average score was 26, headmaster Chris Carter said.

Carter said the school encouraged students to take both the ACT and the SAT.

Nilhas said that statistically one point was not a big deal. But a move backward isn’t good, he said.

“I don’t like it,” he said. “It certainly tells me that we have a lot of work to do.”

The school is placing more focus on reading instruction, a move that could ultimately help increase ACT scores. The school hired a reading specialist to teach classes and train teachers, he said.

Free State High last year started offering pre-ACT tests to help students prepare and to show students that the school has high expectations for the tests. Snyder said the school also was focusing more on reading.