Spring is always a busy and exciting time, and that’s especially true as tens of thousands of students become the first to officially take the enhanced ACT. As you likely know, the enhancements include a now-optional science section, which means a new method of calculating students’ ACT Composite scores.
The good news is that ACT has done the work and the research to ensure two things:
- ACT Composite and section scores remain valid and trustworthy indicators of students’ college readiness.
- A score from the enhanced exam can be used interchangeably with a score from the legacy exam. This is critical as we roll out the new ACT and have legacy and enhanced scores overlapping in the market.
While we’ve done the work and research, we know stakeholders like yourself will have questions. That’s why we’re sharing this new resource, “Interpreting Scores on the Enhanced ACT: Guidance for K-12 and Higher Education Institutions.”
The guide outlines how we approached the design and made psychometrically sound adjustments to a shortened ACT with more time per question and removed science as a component of the ACT Composite scores. The guide also links to the research that supports these changes and reinforces those two key attributes: valid and trustworthy scores from the enhanced ACT that are interchangeable with scores from the legacy exam.
We encourage you to review the guide and the underlying research to inform how you prepare students for the enhanced ACT.
