Jon Whitmore, ACT CEO

The future is exceptionally bright for those who have the opportunity to perform at their best by applying their full measure of talents. Effective teachers and sustained academic efforts by students beginning at the earliest grades lead to incremental achievements that provide an unshakable foundation on which education and career success is built.

ACT’s expansion into the early elementary grades with our next generation of assessments shows evidence of this shift. Through ACT Aspire™, our goal is to help people experience success from their earliest grades in school through the prime years of their careers.

Achieving success is important to individuals, and it’s also important to our nation. As noted in this summer’s release of our Condition of College & Career Readiness 2012 report, the advanced global economy requires American students to perform at their highest level to compete in the future job market and maintain the long-term economic security of the United States.

During the next year, you will learn about our new campaign, “improve yourself.” Through ACT’s unparalleled continuum of products and services, young people and adults will regularly be able to prove and improve their college and career readiness as they advance in their academic and professional lives.

In 1958, our founder, E.F. Lindquist, delivered a presentation titled The Nature of the Problem of Improving Scholarship and College Entrance Examinations. In it, he argued that admissions tests should be used as barometers of academic preparation to help students and colleges address subject areas that need attention.

In short, students were encouraged to “prove” themselves ready, and to “improve” their readiness to succeed.

We at ACT are working hard to continue to turn Dr. Lindquist’s vision into reality.