Topeka ? The percentage of Kansas high school graduates meeting the ACT benchmarks for college and career readiness grew for the fourth straight year in 2014, according to state and national ACT reports released Wednesday.

That may be good news for Gov. Sam Brownback, who had made that a priority as part of his first “road map” agenda in the 2010 campaign.

But the report also shows large gaps remain, in Kansas and the nation, between the achievement levels of white and minority students.

Overall, though, state education officials were pleased with the results.

“Our students continue to score ahead of the national average and our goal is to continue to increase the number of children meeting and exceeding established benchmarks,” interim Education Commissioner Brad Neuenswander said.

The benchmarks represent the minimum score a student needs in each of the test’s four subject areas to have a 50 percent chance of getting a B or better in a corresponding college course, or a 75 percent chance of earning a C or better.

According to the 2014 report, 31 percent met the benchmarks in all four subjects – English, math, reading and science. That number has grown by about one percentage point each year since 2011.

Meanwhile, 47 percent of Kansas students who took the test met the benchmarks in at least three of the four subject areas, the standard ACT uses to predict likelihood of overall success in college.

Nationally, 39 percent of all ACT test takers met at least three of the benchmarks, and 26 percent met all four benchmarks.

Students in the Lawrence school district did even better than the statewide average: 44 percent of students at Free State High School who took the test, and 42 percent of those at Lawrence High School, met all four college readiness benchmarks.

The average composite score in Lawrence held steady compared to last year at 23.7, compared to 21.8 in Kansas and 20.9 nationally. The highest score possible on the ACT exam is 36.

At Free State, the average composite score fell slightly to 24.1 in 2014, while at Lawrence High the average composite score rose to 23.4. Those are both higher than the statewide average of 22 and the national average of 21.

The ACT exam is one of the two main college entrance exams used in the United States, and in Kansas it is taken by far more students than the rival SAT exam.

About 75 percent of Kansas high school seniors take the ACT, which means the results only reflect the academic achievement of those who choose to take the test, not of the graduating class as a whole.

Racial disparities

Details of the ACT report show that the overall upward trend in Kansas is due largely to the fact that the vast majority of students taking the ACT exam are white. Among those students, the number meeting at least three of the four benchmarks has grown three percentage points, from 50 percent in 2010 to 53 percent this year.

But that has not been the case for other racial and ethnic groups in Kansas. In fact, the report shows the gap between white and non-white students has grown in the past four years.

Among black students, for example, only 16 percent met at least three of the benchmarks, an increase of only one percentage point since 2010. That means the gap between blacks and whites has widened to an average of 37 points.

The same is true among Hispanic students, where the average gap has widened from 26 points to 29 points in the past four years. Only 24 percent of Hispanic students in Kansas met three or more of the college readiness benchmarks this year, a rate that is unchanged from 2010.

Large achievement gaps also appeared in each of the four subject areas this year.

On the English exam, 72 percent of all students, and 79 percent of white students, met the college readiness benchmark. But only 49 percent of Hispanics, and 39 percent of black students met that mark.

The most difficult of the four subject areas continues to be science, where only 44 percent of all students met the college readiness benchmark. But half of all white students met that benchmark, compared to only 23 percent of Hispanic students and 14 percent of black students.