ACT Changes and Enhancements for K-12 Educators

...are the enhancements limited to structure and length?

The ACT test will continue to feature multiple-choice questions in the English, math, reading, and science sections, and an open-ended prompt-based essay in writing.  The standards and skills measured by the enhanced blueprint will cover the same concepts and skills measured on the current ACT.  Reporting categories will maintain the same meaning but may be rebalanced proportionally to accommodate stakeholder feedback. By and large, the content of practice materials that are currently available will provide students with experience on the content of questions that ACT will continue to ask.​ 

​The structure of some of the questions will change (English and math are most affected). In addition, the balance of questions that align to the reporting categories in each section is shifting; therefore, there may be more or fewer questions that test specific subject areas.

Reporting Category Tables: Comparison of Legacy and Enhanced ACT Test →

Schools and districts can now set testing schedules that better align with student needs and school priorities. While the English, math, and reading sections must be completed in one sitting, schools have the flexibility to allow a break, enabling students to recharge and return to the test rested, reducing fatigue and maximizing performance potential. 

ACT is committed to maintaining both online and paper tests to allow students, and schools and districts to choose the format that works best for them.

• Online: For the ACT National (Saturday) Test, online testing has been available since December 2023 and will continue as ACT works with our testing centers to grow our network and increase the number of seats available for those wanting to take the test online. As of April 2025, the enhanced ACT is available for National online testing. For ACT State and District Testing, the enhanced ACT will be offered online starting in spring 2026.
• Paper: ACT is committed to allowing students to have choice in their testing journey. That includes maintaining the paper option. As of September 2025, the enhanced ACT is available on paper for the ACT National (Saturday) test. For the ACT State and District Testing, the enhanced version of the test will be available in paper starting in spring 2026.

Yes!

Starting in April 2025, students who choose to take the online ACT test will have their ACT Superscore calculated using a new method that includes only English, math, and reading. For everyone else, this change will take effect in September 2025. We’ll continue to show your highest scores for each subject section along with the test date, but your Composite score on your Superscore report will be based on the new English, math, and reading. Your highest section test scores can come from ANY test event, whether it was on the legacy blueprint or the enhanced ACT.

This means a student who got their highest English their first time testing and on a legacy administration, their highest math on their second legacy administration, and their highest reading on the new enhanced ACT, would see those highest scores used to calculate their ACT Superscore Composite after the new enhanced ACT administration. The science score would be used to calculate the STEM score along with math but would not be used in the ACT Superscore Composite calculation.

...science is a choice?

Yes. We have heard directly from institutions that they will continue using and interpreting the enhanced ACT test score data for admission, scholarships, and course placement, just as they used these data prior to the changes. And ACT will continue to provide students and institutions with valid, reliable, ACT Composite scores.

Starting September 2025, all ACT tests will use the enhanced Composite score based only on English, math, and reading—giving colleges consistent data across all administrations.

• There will be no disruption to the data file that ACT provides to higher education institutions.
• Section scores will continue to be reported on a 1-36 scale.
• Science and scientific thinking/reasoning are important skills, and ACT will continue to be the only college readiness test with a dedicated science section.
• ACT also believes in providing flexibility to learners and families, to allow them to choose to take the assessments that make the most sense for them. Some learners may choose not to take the science assessment, and ACT will provide them with the flexibility to have a shorter testing experience while still receiving a valid and college-reportable score.

...admission, scholarships, etc.? 

No. The research indicates consistent score distributions between legacy English, math, reading, and science Composite scores and the updated English, math, and reading Composite score. 

Additionally, we have reviewed prior cycle admission decisions and related ACT test scores for several types of institutions and found little to no change in admission volumes when applying the updated English, math, and reading-calculated Composite scores to previous admit pools.

ACT has partnered with our Higher Education Senior Leadership Council, key higher education membership organizations, and individual postsecondary institutions to provide research, detailed information, and discussion of institutional policies.

NCR will continue to be offered by ACT. The blueprint changes, including additional time per item, shorter testing time overall, rebalancing of reporting categories and structural changes to the questions, will be rolled out in spring 2026.  The NCR form will be comprehensive — including all four  subjects, as it is today. NCR users will continue to have the options to use the sections that apply to their needs.

...their Composite score?​

No. All Composite scores from all ACT programs (National, International, State and District, paper, online) will move to the new calculated Composite score starting in September 2025. This provides students and higher education with a consistent change over to the new calculation for all tests from that point forward.​   
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Allowing students to choose to take the ACT with or without science does not impact the Composite score distributions across the population of applicants.​  ​  

If a student elects to take the science section, we will provide their science section score and STEM score on all reports; this includes sending those scores to institutions of higher education and other programs that have used these scores in the past.​ 

and/or program-specific admission? 

This is an institution-specific decision.  
 
Historically, the ACT and SAT Composite scores have been accepted equally and commonly concorded with one another for use for general, selective, and program-specific admission and scholarship criteria — and the SAT does not include a science-specific section.

...Testing? 

The choice of what subjects are administered will continue to be at the contract level. State and District Testing clients will decide whether they want to continue to have science administered, just as writing is today. So, in the future, State and District Testing will continue administering English, math, and reading, but will decide whether to include science and/or writing (science and writing are NOT bundled – either one can be selected by itself). 

For the school day flexibility, ACT will allow (should the contract decide that this policy is acceptable), testing over 2 school days. In essence, this formalizes an extended break accommodation that ACT already offers and provides that flexibility to all our State and District Testing customers. If this flexibility is offered, schools would schedule English, math, and reading testing together, as it has been. The extended break could come after the reading assessment or after the science assessment, at the school’s discretion, but testing must be completed in 2 sessions. For paper test takers, the second session must be the same day (later in the afternoon) or the following day. Paper materials will continue to be picked up on Thursday. For online test takers, the school has the entire test window for the second session.

• Online Practice Tests: ACT offers two full-length online practice tests for the enhanced ACT available in timed and untimed versions. Students can use these to experience structural changes as it relates to the enhancements, and to see how ACT has adjusted the number of questions and the length of individual questions. Students can take these practice tests as many times as they like.

• Paper Practice Tests: ACT has also published PDFs for paper examines including one published in the new 2025-26 Preparing for the ACT® Test guide.

• Practice Tests in TestNav: We also plan to release an enhanced practice test (and eventually, two) in the TestNav environment for students who will take the ACT online as part of state and district testing.

• More to Come: ACT will continue developing additional practice materials and working with our partners to update materials for purchase as quickly as possible. 

All PreACT Assessments are in the process of aligning with the enhanced ACT for which the science test is now optional* and does not impact the Composite score. PreACT 9 Secure and PreACT Secure, the solely online tests that can be utilized for higher stakes requirements such as accountability and dual enrollment eligibility, will be rolled out first. PreACT 8/9 and PreACT, with both paper and online options and utilized primarily for ACT preparation and career navigation, will be rolled subsequently and according to the following timeline.

PreACT Alignment to the Enhanced ACT 

*For the 2025-2026 school year, science is not optional, and Composite scores continue to include science. If science is not taken, a Composite score will not be generated.

**The science section will be optional based on district or school preference (and not at the individual student preference level.)

ACT will continue to offer special accommodations to those that require them on the assessment. There are no changes to the types of accommodations that ACT has offered in the past. The enhancements will be seen in special testing forms in April 2025 for national online, September 2025 for paper and international, and spring 2026 testing windows for State and District Testing customers. The special testing forms WILL have field test questions. Times for students who qualify for additional time for testing can be seen on the ACT website below the practice tests. Here is a link to that page: https://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act/test-preparation/free-act-test-prep/act-online-test-sample-questions.html#full-length-practice

...part of a pilot study, and if so, can you share which schools were involved? 

ACT researchers have conducted multiple analyses using historical data, simulated data, and actual data from the most current administration of the new test forms. Results from these studies (found here) have reinforced our confidence that our new Composite score calculation maintains high levels of predictability, validity, and rigor. In addition, across the population, our analyses have shown little change to aggregate score distributions when the Composite score is calculated using three sections rather than four. ACT will release these results as we complete our studies and look forward to questions and suggestions for future lines of inquiry. Early results show the following: 

• The English, math, and reading Composite score have the same correlations with key college outcomes as the current Composite score (English, math, reading, and science) — first-year GPA and degree or certificate acquisition within six years of enrollment.  
• The English, math, and reading Composite score shows similar correlations with course grades as the current Composite score (English, math, reading, and science). 
• Removing science from the Composite score in five different groups of current and historical data shows very little difference in average Composite scores (see Figure 1 for example). 
• Removing science from the Composite score from past scores at five different institution types shows very minimal impact to average Composite scores.

For research supporting the ACT Test enhancements, click here.

ACT periodically reviews our benchmarks to ensure that they are in alignment with the skills required to have a high probability of success in credit-bearing college courses. Since ACT derives these based on student performance, we will target an update to the benchmarks within the next few years (likely sometime in 2026-27) when we have the data to analyze and compare student performance on the enhanced ACT and how those students performed in their first credit-bearing classes.