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California’s high school graduates are outperforming the national average in meeting college readiness benchmarks, according to the latest ACT assessments. But the same study also finds that state graduates are making only modest gains, if any, in the four subject areas measured – English, reading, math and science.

Overall, a third of California’s ACT-tested high school graduates met the benchmarks in all four subjects, compared with 26 percent nationally. For the full report, click here.

Testing results over four years, 2009 to 2013, showed that the percentage of the graduates meeting the benchmarks remained flat in English (73 percent to 72 percent), fell in reading (59 to 51), experienced a modest gain in math (55 to 58) and grew substantially in science (33 to 41).

The number of graduates who met benchmarks in all four subjects rose over the four years to 33 percent from 29 percent in 2009.

The results come from “The Condition of College & Career Readiness,” ACT’s annual report on the progress of the graduating class relative to college readiness. This year, the report said, 107,243 California graduates, about 26 percent, took the ACT. From 2009 to 2013, the number of ACT test-taking graduates has increased by 31.6 percent, while the number of graduates in California increased by 0.2 percent.