ACT Goes After SAT Market

Like The Little Engine That Could, the ACT is slowly but surely gobbling bits of standardized test market share from the College Board, makers of the SAT and associated test paraphernalia. Today’s announcement that average ACT scores remain relatively unchanged from last year (21.1 on a scale of 1 to 36) is not nearly as interesting as looking at the growth experienced by a test previously known mainly to Midwestern high school students. This year, 1.5 million took the ACT—up 25% over the last 5 years, even as the total number of high school graduates declined slightly from 3.34 million in 2008 to 3.32 million in 2009. And look at this: Virginia test takers increased a whopping 66%, with Maryland and D.C. increasing by 54% and 52% respectively.

Why would this be? There are lots of reasons, but an important part of the ACT growth can be directly linked to increased use of independent college counselors who initially got the ball rolling while school systems remained stuck on the traditional SAT route. Through networking and professional training, independent counselors discovered and loudly communicated to high school students that virtually every college and university in the country will accept the ACT or the SAT . It makes sense. Why would one exam be under the sole domain of a specific geographic area of the country, especially when it tests different things using different methods to project college performance? So word went out, students successfully submitted ACT scores, and low and behold, ACT numbers went up. And, if I’m any judge, they will continue to go up this year.

Historically, the ACT is a first cousin to the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, which many of us took annually in grade school (even before computers were there to score them). It is a “curriculum based” achievement test designed to measure skills necessary to succeed in the first year of college. Five states (Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, and Wyoming) require that all students take the ACT to graduate—sort of like the Virginia SOL’s. Some counselors believe it’s a good test for smart students who don’t test well. I’m not sure about that, but I do know that about one-third of all high school students will do better on the SAT, one-third will do better on the ACT, and one-third will do exactly the same. So why not try both especially if colleges consider them equally acceptable?

For those with scorecards, here is how our area fared this year:

State	Tested in 2005	Tested in 2009	Percent Tested	English	Math	Reading	Science	Composite
Virginia	10,806	17,902	20%	21.7	21.8	22.3	21.4	21.9
Maryland	7,332	11,317	17%	21.9	22.1	22.5	21.5	22.1
DC	1,018	1,548	30%	19.1	19.5	19.7	18.6	19.4
National	1,186,251	1,480,469	45%	20.6	21.0	21.4	20.9	21.1

Of all the Virginia students taking the ACT, 88% indicated an interest in obtaining a bachelor’s degree. Scores were sent to virtually every major public and private post-secondary institution in the Commonwealth. The most frequently listed major/career interest was Health Sciences, and three amazing Virginia high school students scored a perfect 36 on the Composite.