On April 8, juniors and freshmen will be taking the state required ACT and PreACT 8/9, respectively. While freshmen are required to take the test as practice, juniors will be taking the official exam, giving them the opportunity to submit their scores to college.
While Illinois remained an ACT-required state for 15 years since 2001, the state administration had made the decision to switch the required test to the SAT from 2016 to 2024. Most recently, starting in the 2024-25 spring testing year, Illinois signed a contract with ACT Incorporation until the 2029-30 school year, bringing back the ACT as the required standardized test for all high school students.
On May 14, 2024, State Superintendent Tony Sanders explained the decision in the Illinois State Board of Education’s Weekly Message, commenting how the ACT was the best fit for Illinois.
“The ACT aligns with the Illinois Learning Standards and provides a secure online testing experience for students, while reducing administrative burden on districts,” Sanders said.
With standardized testing shifting from a written paper exam to digital in the 2024-25 school year, schools, school administrators, and students alike have to adjust to recent changes in exam setup. Regarding ACT’s new “Enhanced” exam format, Ted Goergen, Assistant Principal for Teaching and Learning, recognizes the confusion from students and families as standardized testing undergoes recent changes.
“Teachers and families were really comfortable with ACT,” Goergen said. “In 2016, when we switched to the SAT, it was a whole new learning experience. For instance, one sibling is taking the SAT, another the ACT, and it’s hard for families to wrap their heads around that.”
As Illinois schools shifted back to the ACT, state administrators decided the exam was better aligned to the standards across the state when looking at learning standards, skills, and objectives, according to Goergen. With AP season around the corner, Goergen has noted challenges working with two separate companies for exams year round: the College Board and the ACT. Goergen mentions how the testing department and the administrators have been working hard to ensure the testing process goes smoothly.
As part of the set up process, schools have around 10 days to set the exam up. Despite months of preparation prior to the testing day, last spring, there was a statewide online platform crash that occurred while students were taking the ACT. Since Stevenson waited for other schools to test out the platform first, they were able to adjust to ensure a seamless testing experience for students.
“We’re fortunate here at Stevenson that as soon as they made that decision on July 1st, we were ready,” Goergen said. “We had all hands on deck to make sure that this is a smooth process. You can imagine a different school that doesn’t have some of those resources and that infrastructure to make sure everything goes according to plan.”