Brighton High School's class of 2026 sent 70 students past the 30-point mark on the ACT, far exceeding the school's typical range of 30 to 40. Five Canyons School District students earned a perfect 36.

Canyons Board President Amber Shill shared the Brighton numbers at a Cottonwood Heights City Council meeting in July, calling it "a very impressive year." The class of 550 graduates also earned $15 million in college scholarships, and more than 40 students graduated with a 4.0 grade point average.

The five perfect-score students, recognized at the district's Sept. 15 board meeting, were Miles Higginson of Brighton High, Gabriel Carlton and Oliver Collings of Alta High, Sydney Hanks of Corner Canyon High and Zhuocheng Wang of Hillcrest High.

The local results come as Utah posted its strongest statewide ACT performance in years. The Utah State Board of Education reported Oct. 14 that the class of 2026 averaged a 20.1 composite, up from 19.9 in 2025 and well above the national average of 18.8. A total of 44,756 public school students took the exam, representing 91 percent of graduates. Utah ranked first in composite score among the 16 states that tested 90 percent or more of their graduates, ahead of Wisconsin and Montana, both at 19.4.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Molly Hart, a former principal at Mount Jordan and Albion middle schools in the Canyons District, said the state is proud of the growth students and schools have shown as they focus on postsecondary readiness.

The benchmark data tell a more complicated story. Among Utah's 2026 graduates:

  • 57 percent met the English benchmark.
  • 34 percent met the math benchmark, up from 32 percent in 2025.
  • 45 percent met the reading benchmark, up from 43 percent.
  • 33 percent met the science benchmark.
  • 27 percent met all three core benchmarks in English, math and reading, up two percentage points from 2025.

Those figures mean roughly two out of three graduates did not meet the ACT's college-readiness bar in math.

Broader statewide assessment results released Sept. 11 showed a similar pattern. Science proficiency hit a record 49.8 percent, surpassing pre-pandemic levels. English language arts reached 45.4 percent, still 1.4 points below the 2019 baseline. Math proficiency stood at 42.5 percent, up from a 2021 low of 39 percent but still trailing the pre-pandemic mark of 44.6 percent.

Utah funds the ACT for every public school junior at no cost, one of a handful of states to do so. That universal testing policy means the state's scores reflect a broader cross-section of students than states where only college-bound students opt in.