Mississippi superintendent of education, Dr. Hank Bounds, says the state's graduating class showed marked improvement in the English section of the ACT exam.

Over the last five years, the state average score in English has improved from 18.9 in 2004 to 19.3 in 2008. The students' average composite score on the ACT was 18.9, which matches the average of the 2007 class.

Bounds attributes the improvement in English to "having high standards." Mississippi has implemented more rigorous mathematics and language arts curricula over the past two years.

Alabama students' ACT scores are slowly inching upward but they still trail the national average, according to a report being released Wednesday by the makers of the popular college entrance exam.

The maximum score on the test is 36 points and Alabama students scored an average 20.4 in 2008, up from 20.3 the previous year. The national average was 21.1 this year, down from 21.2 in 2007.

Ed Colby is a spokesman for the Iowa City-based ACT and says Alabama has something to feel good about, but "with the understanding that there's a lot of hard work ahead."

The percent of Alabama students who met reading benchmarks improved two points from 46 to 48 percent while the tally for English increased by one point to 68 percent.

But the percentages in math remain unchanged for the third straight year and science was steady for the second consecutive year.