Test scores released this week show Tennessee high school students continue to lag behind the national average when it comes to ACT results.Tennessee’s average ACT score was 19.5, compared with the national average of 20.9.Warren County is still behind the state average with Director of Schools Bobby Cox saying the ACT average for the local school district is right at 18.Cox, who is in his second year as director, made improving ACT scores one of his priorities. Cox says due to the ACT schedule, the results from the first year of work won’t be seen until next year.“The scores we get this year are for the group of seniors who graduated in 2013 and most of them took the test their junior year,” said Cox. “We initiated an ACT prep program last year so hopefully we will begin seeing better scores when we get those results in 2014.”While local ACT scores were largely unchanged from previous years, Cox did say there was some improvement with the math section, particularly algebra.ACT scores are widely accepted as a measure of academic knowledge as students make the transition from high school to college.