Counselor Newsletter

December 2019

Upcoming Dates

December ACT® Test Date — December 14, 2019

February ACT® Test Date — February 8, 2020

  • On-Time Registration deadline:  January 10, 2020
  • Late registration deadline: January 17, 2020

ACT State Organization Events

Association for Career & Technical Education’s CareerTech Vision 2019 Conference—December 4-7, 2019, Anaheim, California

This Month

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Spanish-Language Resources for Families Now Available

Did you know ACT has resources for your college-going students and their parents who speak Spanish? These Spanish-language college-planning resources are now available on the ACT website. The site includes dozens of helpful tools to help students and families prepare for the future, including:

  • Eight free eBooks on college and career planning topics
  • A full ACT practice test
  • Information on ACT test accommodations for bilingual students
  • Information about the ACT test fee waiver program

This resource page was developed with and sponsored by ACT’s Center for Equity in Learning, in partnership with Univision.

Updates on New ACT Test Options

 

FAQs: All About Superscoring, Subject Retesting, and More

Your students will have questions leading up to the new options coming to the ACT® test starting in September 2020. To keep you and your students up to date, we are providing FAQs that cover each test enhancement: superscoring, section retesting, and online testing.

 

ACT Beginner’s Guide Available for Preorder

The Official Beginner’s Guide for ACT 2020-2021 will provide students with all the information they need to prepare and learn about the new options coming to the ACT. Readers will get information about section retesting, the option for faster results through online testing, and ACT superscoring. Plus, students will learn the best strategies to prepare, receive online access to a PreACT® Diagnostic test, and access to both a printed and online ACT practice test.

 

Online Assessment Planner Now Available

ACT has released a new tool to help educators plan and assess their students’ progress throughout their entire education. A comprehensive assessment plan is a detailed schedule of assessments designed to provide an unbroken chain of data that supports and enhances whole student learning from elementary through career. This tool provides you with a simple, visual layout of your current assessments across grades and ACT Holistic Framework domains, as well as recommended solutions to complete your comprehensive assessment plan.

 

New Research Available on Subject Retesting

Learn more about ACT subject retesting in these two new reports from ACT research, which discuss:

  • The impact of taking the ACT subject tests in different orders
  • Whether taking ACT subject tests on different test days affects scores

Study: How SEL Affects Online Student Learning

A new ACT research study finds that social and emotional skills directly relate to how students interact with online learning activities and materials, which can be used to predict and improve student educational outcomes.

The study sought to understand how social and emotional skills are related to students’ online behaviors and course outcomes within a learning management system (LMS) in order to identify ways to help improve student outcomes. The research found that social and emotional skills have systematic relationships with students’ online learning behaviors within an LMS.

 

In Case You Missed It: Webinar on ACT Test Prep

Watch this free webinar from ACT that answers the question, “What kind of test prep is right for each student?” Our presenters share student best practices for preparing for the test and provide a detailed overview of the new and traditional prep products (free and paid) offered by ACT. We also preview some new test prep options available to help students take advantage of upcoming enhancements to the ACT test.

ACT's 60th Anniversary

Blog: Where ACT Has Been, and Where It’s Going

Since the early 1990s, the Belin-Blank Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development has partnered with ACT to ensure that gifted and talented students, especially those from under-resourced schools, have access to advanced programming, which is often revealed through careful interpretation of their test scores.

This month, ACT celebrates its 60th anniversary and a steadfast history that has changed the educational narrative around tests and education. This milestone presents an opportunity to reflect on a six-decade history of distinction and innovation, which in turn serves as a platform for forecasting an equally distinguished future. Dr. Susan Assouline of the Belin-Blank Center lists six of ACT’s accomplishments with her forecasts for the future of ACT's work.

 

Video: Thank You for Helping Us for 60 Years

This year marks six decades since the first ACT® test was administered. Thank you for 60 years of helping people achieve education and workplace success!

Helpful Tips to Share with Your Students

Tell Students About the February ACT Test

Encourage your students to take the ACT on Saturday, February 8! Students can avoid late fees when they register by Friday, January 10.

Why should your students take the ACT in February? Find out.

Superscore FAQs for Your Students

Superscoring is the process of averaging a student’s four best subject scores across all ACT® test attempts to find a new score. A superscore best reflects their abilities, and ultimately, helps students get admitted into college and secure merit-based scholarships.

Do you have more questions about superscoring? Get the answers.