ACT

History

On November 7, 1959, the first-ever ACT was taken by 75,460 high school students looking forward to joining college. Although another college admissions test (the SAT, then known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test) did exist at that time, the ACT was different because it was a test of achievement and did not purport to measure innate intelligence or intelligence quotient. Being unsatisfied with the existing system of admissions testing, E. F. Lindquist and Ted McCarrel cofounded the ACT (now ACT, Inc.) and created the first college admission test based on information taught in schools.

Since its inception, the ACT has grown rapidly. Since 1960, ACT has been taken in all 50 states. In 2012, for the first time, the number of students taking the ACT surpassed the number of students taking the SAT. In 2012, over half of the country’s high school graduates took the ACT. Part of the growth can be attributed to statewide administrations of the ACT. In 2001, Colorado and Illinois became the first states to adopt the ACT as part of their statewide assessment programs to measure students’ progress toward meeting state learning standards. Other states soon followed. For the 2014–2015 school year, the ACT was administered as part of a state assessment to students in 21 U.S. states.

In spring 2013, ACT announced enhancements to the ACT based on evidence from the ACT National Curriculum Survey and to reflect changes in the education market. These enhancements are as follows: (a) the online administration of the ACT, (b) the addition of questions on the reading test, addressing whether students can integrate knowledge and ideas across multiple texts, (c) the inclusion of additional statistics and probability items in the mathematics test for reporting of [Page 34]student achievement in this area, and (d) additional scores and indicators (STEM score, progress toward career readiness indicator, English language arts score, and understanding complex texts indicator). However, the 1–36 score scale remains. In fall 2015, enhancements were made to the design of the writing test and new writing scores were introduced. The score scale has been changed from 2–12 to 1–36. Instead of one holistic score, students receive four analytic scores (also known as domain scores) which are used to compute the writing score on the 1–36 scale.

...