Before 2017, high school students in Illinois were mandated to take the ACT, but the state switched to the SAT in 2017. Until now, the state has required students to take the SAT. However, starting in 2025, Illinois will return to requiring its high schools to administer the ACT.
Due to this policy change, Stevenson juniors will return to taking the ACT in 2025. The state exam is determined by a bidding process, with the higher monetary bid between ACT and the College Board deciding which exam is selected. Since many colleges use these tests for scholarships and admissions, a state-funded exam greatly benefits the students.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, both the ACT and SAT help colleges see approximately the amount of rigor a student can take, helping colleges predict a student’s future GPA in college. Additionally, these scores help the state hold high schools accountable for meeting academic standards.
“The state uses information from tests like the ACT and SAT to determine if a particular set of students is college ready, or they’re meeting certain benchmarks,” said Ted Goergen, the Assistant Principal for Teaching & Learning at Stevenson. “There are really important things for students to master by the time they graduate. That’s how the state sets those benchmarks. Schools use that information for interventions to help students meet those benchmarks “
However, despite both exams setting baseline standards for students, mainly in English and math fields, there are fundamental differences in the exams, according to Doug Lillydahl, the Director of Communication Arts at Stevenson. He noted that the biggest difference is the time given to students, with the ACT timing being noticeably shorter. Despite this, Lillydahl believes this change will not majorly affect Stevenson students.
“We’ve always felt that we have the best classes we possibly can that also prepare kids for whatever testing they might do,” Lillydahl said. “We do not teach the test directly, but we’ll make some changes. We’ll make sure students are exposed to some ACT-style questions.”
Another major difference is that while the SAT is adaptive following the transition to a digital test format, with two modules in both sections, the ACT is not, instead broken up into four sections: English, math, reading, and science. However, Lillydahl believes the two tests are not too different, with Goergen also pointing out that with the recent change of the SAT going digital starting in 2024, both tests are now digital, with the ACT having a digital and paper option.
“There are certain populations of students that perform better on the SAT than on the ACT, and vice versa,” Goergen said. “I think most of the population performs pretty equally on both.”
According to The Princeton Review, the correlation between SAT and ACT scores is usually around 0.89 and 0.92, showing a strong correlation between the two tests, with a correlation of 1 being a direct positive correlation, and -1 being a direct negative correlation.
In 2017, during the initial change from the ACT to the SAT, when Stevenson initially switched from the ACT to the SAT, Lillydahl noticed that some students believed the ACT was more difficult than the SAT. Additional changes, effective 2025, will also apply to students taking the ACT.
“There is a redesign coming for the ACT in the following year,” Lillydah said. “However, I don’t believe that the shift will be a deviation from what skills are already tested, it will likely be more about format than changed expectations. ”]
According to Janet Godwin, the CEO of ACT, the new ACT will give students fewer questions in the same amount of time, resulting in 22% more time per question. Additionally, the science section will now also be optional. However, including the science section would mean that juniors will no longer have to take a separate Illinois Science Assessment.
The SAT and ACT both have pre-tests, called the PSAT and Pre-ACT, respectively. However, the NMSQT, a form of the PSAT, also awards scholarships to students at certain schools, will continue at Stevenson despite the switch to the ACT.
“The NMSQT will still be administered, but we are still having discussions about what that looks like in the future,” Goergen said.
Goergen also stated that initially there were a lot of public complaints by students, teachers, and parents alike due to the change when it was originally announced but maintained that Stevenson is always focused on ensuring its students are comfortable with any changes that may occur in testing environments. Nevertheless, Lillydahl hopes that students will not be too worried about these changes.
“I hope students don’t spend too much emotional energy on worrying over the test,” Lillydahl said. “I think that students will do well regardless of the test, and there won’t be a real impact because they’re well prepared by Stevenson.”