Starting in April 2025, ACT will introduce enhanced forms of the ACT® test for national online testing, with a full rollout to all paper and online test takers in national, state and district, and international test administrations by Spring 2026. ACT introduced major updates by changing the test lengths and testing times, providing more time per…

Accurate and equitable assessments are key for making valid comparisons and understanding the impact of essential skills interventions across diverse student populations, including students with disabilities. Measurement invariance, or whether an assessment measures the same construct in the same manner across different groups, is crucial for…

In recent years, schools and large-scale assessment developers across the United States have been providing English learners with language supports when they take tests to reduce construct-irrelevant variance, or errors in test scores due to factors that are extraneous to the construct being assessed (Thorndike et al., 1991). Some of these…

This study investigated the value of ACT Composite scores and high school GPA (HSGPA) in predicting first-year college GPA (FYGPA) and degree completion of students with disabilities who took the ACT with accommodations and enrolled at a two-year or four-year public institution in a single state in the southern US. Descriptive analyses found that…

Mateo was like many students, neither fluent in English nor in American Sign Language (ASL) and significantly delayed in literacy skills. At Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD), he was provided with emerging signers services to develop his expressive and receptive ASL skills. He was also provided with speech and language services by a…

In the fall of 2017, ACT began providing a limited number of supports (also known as accommodations) to English Learner (EL) students in the US taking the ACT® test. The goal of the supports is to remove construct-irrelevant variance in students' scores related to limited English proficiency and allow students to more accurately demonstrate their…

This study examined the performance, demographics, and contextual factors of students taking the ACT® test with accommodations compared to students taking the ACT without accommodations. We examined the prevalence of accommodations provided and disability categories as well as performance by disability type. We also examined demographic…

This study examined the performance of English learners (ELs) taking the ACT® test with testing supports, as compared to ELs and non-ELs taking the ACT without supports or accommodations. Contextual factors were also explored, including high school experiences and demographic characteristics such as low-income and first-generation college student…

In order to comply with the regulations put forth by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states are required to submit evidence associated with their statewide accountability systems to the United States Department of Education (ED) for peer review. Some states have elected to…

In order to comply with the regulations put forth by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states are required to submit evidence associated with their statewide accountability systems to the United States Department of Education (ED) for peer review. Thirty-eight states submitted…

During the 2015-16 school year, 25 states used assessments aligned to college- and career-ready standards developed by consortia of states (i.e., Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers--PARCC, Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium--Smarter Balanced) as their accountability assessments. The participation of students with…

This report provides information about the performance of Florida's 2016 graduating seniors who took the ACT as sophomores, juniors, or seniors; and self-reported at the time of testing that they were scheduled to graduate in 2016. Beginning with the Graduating Class of 2013, all students whose scores are college reportable, both standard and…

College admissions tests provide a standardized and objective measure of student achievement and generalized skills. Unlike high school grades or rank, admission tests are a common measure for comparing students who have attended different high schools, completed different courses, received different grades in courses taught by different teachers,…

The scores of students with disabilities who took the ACT Assessment at least twice, and at least once under extended-time guidelines, were studied. The investigation identified three groups of students. The first group was composed of 3,410 students who tested at least twice under extended-time guidelines. The second group of 3,439 students…