ACT Education Corp: Empowering Individuals Through Assessment Solutions

Introduction

For over six decades, ACT Education Corp has been a prominent force in college and career readiness. Rooted in extensive research, ACT provides a suite of assessments and credentials recognized by job seekers, employers, educators, and government agencies globally. ACT aims to support student success by giving every student an equal opportunity to fully understand what they need for future success.

A Legacy of Assessment Excellence

Since its inception, ACT has been committed to empowering individuals and strengthening businesses through robust assessment solutions. The organization's longevity in the field, spanning more than 65 years, underscores its dedication to providing relevant and reliable tools for measuring skills and readiness.

ACT WorkKeys and the National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC)

ACT WorkKeys is central to ACT's workforce offerings, featuring the widely recognized National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC). With over 6 million certificates issued since 2006, the NCRC is a proven benchmark, relied upon by employers for hiring and advancement, and foundational to state and county-level workforce and economic development initiatives across the country.

The NCRC certifies essential, transferable skills crucial for success across diverse industries and postsecondary pathways. This certification serves as a valuable tool for individuals seeking to demonstrate their readiness for the workforce and for employers seeking to identify qualified candidates.

Partnerships and Collaborations

Headquartered in Iowa City, Iowa, ACT develops partnerships with industry associations, educational institutions, and public-private entities to ensure a skilled and competitive global workforce. These collaborations enable ACT to stay at the forefront of workforce development trends and to tailor its offerings to meet the evolving needs of employers and job seekers.

Evolving to Meet Student Needs

ACT is transforming college and career readiness pathways so that everyone can discover and fulfill their potential. The ACT® Test is evolving-featuring fewer questions, more time per question, shorter reading passages, and fewer answer choices to better support student success. ACT’s new strategic partnership with Going Merry by Earnest gives your students a simple, personalized platform to find scholarships, apply for financial aid, and compare college costs. In fact, Going Merry has a database of more than $1 billion in active scholarships - including some specifically for ACT-tested students.

ACT Curriculum & Assessment Planner

The ACT Curriculum & Assessment Planner helps you align curriculum and assessments to your goals with insights and recommendations.

Commitment to Listening

Catherine Hofmann, our senior vice president of government and public relations, reflects on our commitment to listening to our customers, whether they are students, educators, counselors, higher ed leaders, or workforce development professionals as a way to ensure we're not just providing products and resources that WE want, but ones that our customers NEED.

The ACT Test: A Closer Look

The ACT (, AY-see-tee; originally an abbreviation of American College Testing) is a standardized test used for college admissions in the United States. It also offers optional scientific reasoning and direct writing tests. The multiple-choice test sections of the ACT (all except the optional writing test) are individually scored on a scale of 1-36.

History and Evolution

The ACT was first introduced in November 1959 by University of Iowa professor Everett Franklin Lindquist as a competitor to the SAT. The ACT originally consisted of four tests: English, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Natural Sciences. In 1989, however, the Social Studies test was changed into a Reading section (which included a social sciences subsection), and the Natural Sciences test was renamed the Science Reasoning test, with more emphasis on problem-solving skills as opposed to memorizing scientific facts. In February 2005, an optional Writing Test was added to the ACT.

Test Development

To develop the test, ACT incorporates the objectives for instruction from middle and high schools throughout the United States, reviews approved textbooks for subjects taught in Grades 7-12, and surveys educators on which knowledge skills are relevant to success in postsecondary education. secondary schools due to American federalism, local control, the prevalence of private, distance, homeschooled students, and lack of a rigorous college entrance examination system similar those used in some other countries.

Usage and Importance

Most colleges use ACT scores as only one factor in the admission process. In addition, some states and individual school districts have used the ACT to assess student learning and/or the performance of schools, requiring all high school students to take the ACT, regardless of whether they are college bound. Colorado and Illinois were the first to incorporate the ACT as part of their mandatory testing program in 2001. Other states followed suit in subsequent years. The ACT is more widely used in the Midwestern, Rocky Mountain, and Southern United States, whereas the SAT is more popular on the East and West coasts.

Test Structure and Scoring

The required portion of the ACT is divided into three multiple-choice subject tests: English, mathematics, and reading. Subject test scores, including the optional science section, range from 1 to 36; all scores are integers. The English, mathematics, and reading tests also have subscores ranging from 1 to 18 (the subject score is not the sum of the subscores). In addition, students taking the optional writing test receive a writing score ranging from 2 to 12 (this is a change from the previous 1-36 score range); the optional science and writing scores do not affect the composite score. Each question answered correctly is worth one raw point, and there is no penalty for marking incorrect answers on the multiple-choice parts of the test; a student can answer all questions without a decrease in their score due to incorrect answers. This is parallel to several AP Tests eliminating the penalties for incorrect answers.

English Test

The first section is the 45-minute English test covering usage/mechanics, sentence structure, and rhetorical skills. The 75-question test consists of five passages with various sections underlined on one side of the page and options to correct the underlined portions on the other side of the page.

Mathematics Test

The second section is a 60-minute, 60-question math test with the usual distribution of questions being approximately 14 covering pre-algebra, 10 elementary algebra, 9 intermediate algebra, 14 plane geometry, 9 coordinate geometry, and 4 elementary trigonometry questions. However, the distribution of question topics varies from test to test. The difficulty of questions usually increases as a test taker moves on to higher question numbers. Calculators are permitted in this section only. Similarly to the SAT, computer algebra systems (such as the TI-89) are not allowed; however, the ACT permits calculators with paper tapes, that make noise (but must be disabled), or that have power cords with certain "modifications" (i.e., disabling the mentioned features), which the SAT does not allow. Standard graphing calculators, such as the TI-83 and TI-84, are allowed.

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Reading Test

The reading section is a 35-minute, 40-question test that consists of four sections, three of which contain one long prose passage and one which contains two shorter prose passages. The passages are representative of the levels and kinds of text commonly encountered in first-year college curriculum. This reading test assesses skills in three general categories: key ideas and details, craft and structure, and integration of knowledge and ideas. Test questions will usually ask students to derive meaning from texts referring to what is explicitly stated or by reasoning to determine implicit meanings.

Science Test

The optional science section is a 35-minute, 40-question test. There are seven passages each followed by five to seven questions. The passages have three different formats: Data Representation, Research Summary, and Conflicting Viewpoints. While the format used to be very predictable (i.e. there were always three Data Representation passages with 5 questions following each, 3 Research Summary passages with six questions each, and one Conflicting Viewpoints passage with 7 questions), when the number of passages was reduced from 7 to 6, more variability in the number of each passage type started to appear. But so far, there is still always only one Conflicting Viewpoints passage.

Writing Test

The optional writing section, which is always administered at the end of the test, is 40 minutes (increasing from the original 30-minute time limit on the September 2015 test). While no particular essay structure is required, the essays must be in response to a given prompt; the prompts are about broad social issues (changing from the old prompts which were directly applicable to teenagers), and students must analyze three different perspectives given and show how their opinion relates to these perspectives. The essay does not affect the composite score or the English section score; it is only given as a separate writing score and is included in the ELA score. Two trained readers assign each essay subscores between 1 and 6 in four different categories: Ideas and Analysis, Development and Support, Organization, Language Use and Conventions. Scores of 0 are reserved for essays that are blank, off-topic, non-English, not written with a no. 2 pencil, or considered illegible after several attempts at reading. The subscores from the two different readers are summed to produce final domain scores from 2 to 12 (or 0) in each of the four categories. If the two readers' subscores differ by more than one point, then a senior third reader makes the final decision on the score. The four domain scores are combined through a process that has not been described to create a writing section score between 1 and 36.

Test Dates and Accessibility

The ACT is offered seven times a year in the United States and its territories, Puerto Rico, and Canada: in September, October, December, February, April, June, and July. Students with verifiable disabilities, including physical and learning disabilities, are eligible to take the test with accommodations.

Difficulty and Scoring

The ACT is generally regarded as being composed of somewhat easier questions versus the SAT, but the shorter time allotted to complete each section increases difficulty. Comparatively, the SAT is structured such that the test taker is allowed at least one minute per question, on generally shorter sections (25 or fewer questions). Score reports provided to students taking the ACT test include the ranks (or cumulative percents) for each score and subscore received by the student.

AI and Standardized Testing

When it comes to college admissions, the majority of students surveyed by ACT agree on some level that AI can influence coursework, and GPAs, as well as many of the components for college admissions such as essays and letters of recommendation. However, standardized test scores like the ACT are one aspect of admissions that cannot be AI-influenced.

Celebrating Career and Technical Education (CTE)

February is #CTEMonth - a time to celebrate the power of purpose-driven learning. When students see where learning leads, everything changes. Career and Technical Education connects classroom learning to postsecondary opportunity, building confidence, motivation, and in-demand skills along the way.

STEM Education Initiatives

Lt. Governor Pamela Evette of South Carolina, who also serves as the Chair of the National Lt. Governors Association, highlights the initiatives promoting STEM education in her state and across the nation through the NLGA Lt. Governors' STEM Scholarship program sponsored by ACT. This program provides funding to schools for STEM-related projects and initiatives. Our sponsorship of this important NLGA scholarship demonstrates our commitment to supporting STEM programs for students who, based on our recent research, understand the importance of having access to these classes during their K-12 education. These efforts play a crucial role in guiding students towards their postsecondary pathways, whether they pursue higher education or enter the workforce.

The ACT Summit

The 2026 ACT Summit: Where Policy and Practice Meet Purpose. Listen to what attendees from last year's Summit had to say about the value of having K-12, higher ed and workforce leaders convene in the same space, collaborate in real time, and leave with actionable strategies and a stronger sense of purpose.

ACT Event Alert!

Think College staff will demonstrate their program database and share powerful outcome data highlighting the meaningful impact of college for students with intellectual disabilities.

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