ACT Newsroom & Blog

IOWA CITY, Iowa—ACT has selected Fulbright Korean-American Education Commission (KAEC) as the sole administrator of the ACT® test in South Korea. Under this agreement, ACT tests will be administered by Fulbright, with ACT’s oversight, at a single agreed-upon site. For the April test date, the location is the Korea International Exhibition & Convention Center (KINTEX) near Seoul.

“Fulbright has significant experience with high-stakes test administration and international testing programs,” said Suzana Delanghe, ACT chief commercial officer. “We are eager to begin working with a Korean institution on administration of the ACT test in South Korea.”

The KAEC was established as a non-profit educational organization by a bilateral agreement between the U.S. and the Republic of Korea. Also widely known as the Korea Fulbright Commission, the organization is governed by a board of directors consisting of equal numbers of Koreans and Americans representing government, education and the private sector. Fulbright has administered a number of different high-stakes academic testing programs and is experienced in high-volume test administrations.

The move follows the successful administration of the ACT test this past December at a single test site directly monitored by ACT staff in Seoul. Previously, the ACT test had been administered by various vendors across South Korea. The move was made to address test material compromises in the country and strengthen ACT’s ongoing commitment to provide a fair testing environment for all students.

“Our move to a single test site in December proved to be successful in the ways that are most important to us and to test takers—quality, security and access,” said Delanghe. “We are confident that this new arrangement with Fulbright will enable ACT to maintain improved test security and fairness while ensuring access to the ACT as well as delivering a high quality experience to test takers.”

The next ACT test in South Korea will be on April 8, 2017. The registration deadline for that test is March 3. Registration and additional information about the ACT test for international students can be found on ACT’s website.

The ACT test is accepted for admission by all U.S. four-year colleges and universities and more than 225 universities across the globe. Many colleges also use ACT scores for course placement, merit scholarship eligibility, and advising purposes.

The interaction of disparate cultures, the vehemence of the ideals that led the immigrants here, the opportunity offered by a new life, all gave America a flavor and a character that make it as unmistakable and as remarkable to people today as it was to Alexis de Tocqueville in the early part of the nineteenth century.

—John F. Kennedy, A Nation of Immigrants

America has always been a nation of immigrants. As the CEO of a company that works to support individuals and their pursuit of education and workplace success, I am alarmed and concerned by the actions taken by the President’s executive order this past weekend to restrict the entry into the United States of certain immigrants. Some are seeking refuge from the devastations of war, while others are in fact U.S. residents, but in nearly every case they are simply seeking to advance a better life for themselves, their families, and our nation.

Of the more than 1 million international students currently enrolled in U.S. postsecondary institutions, approximately 17,000 come from countries in the current immigration ban. Many of those students are understandably confused about what their futures may hold. And beyond these questions about their future education and career opportunities is also the potential “brain drain” that could impact U.S. companies in the long term and which should be equally alarming to us as a nation. An estimated 35% of all foreign students in the U.S. are pursuing degrees in STEM fields, and upon graduation many of them will likely be offered jobs with some of America’s largest tech firms: Apple, Microsoft, Google, DuPont, Exxon-Mobil, and Dow, to name just a handful. Because of the recent executive order, the contributions of these graduates to American innovation and economic competitiveness are now seriously in question.

As many companies around the world know, diversity breeds innovation and innovation breeds business success. Our own company benefits from the commitment of immigrants and foreign nationals—myself included—to helping individuals around the globe and here in the States achieve college and career success.  ACT is building for the future, and as we innovate to improve our own solutions and the measurement industry as a whole we will rely on talent from across the globe. This weekend’s immigration actions will have serious implications to the way we attract the best and brightest from around the world; without them we can’t bring about the required innovation to fix the American education system. We need help from outside the U.S. to find new ways to remedy our serious achievement and skills gaps. We are proud of our employees and the innovative culture that people from varied cultures and counties bring to ACT, and we are stronger because of our diverse culture. Being inclusive is one of our guiding principles.

Denying entry to people who have much to add to the country and who are often already here legally for work and education purposes runs counter to the ideals of a country founded by immigrants seeking safe harbor and sanctuary from foreign oppression. Creating blanket blockades of individuals from certain countries is not a formula to solve America’s immigration and security issues – we can and must do better than what we’ve seen this weekend.

IOWA CITY, Iowa—Students who answer the free, online ACT Question of the Day will now be given access to complimentary resources designed to help them improve their academic skills in the covered topic area.

The enhanced ACT Question of the Day, which is accessed through the ACT Profile service, will allow students to improve their skills by watching short instructional videos, taking quizzes to diagnose areas where improvement may be necessary, and completing additional “next step” review options and video suggestions at their convenience.

The resources will be provided through OpenEd, a company that was acquired by ACT in May. OpenEd provides educational resources to teachers across the U.S. These resources include videos, games, assessments, homework assignments, and lesson plans. Now the most relevant and helpful of those resources will be available to students preparing to take the ACT.

ACT will continue to provide students with retired questions from real ACT tests on each ACT Question of the Day.

“This integration allows us to better serve our customers and fulfill the needs of students searching for a trusted, no-cost option for improving their skills as they prepare to take the ACT,” said Rich Patz, CEO of ACT Assessment Technologies. OpenEd is part of the ACT Assessment Technologies group. “ACT acquired OpenEd to intelligently connect our valuable research and assessment expertise to top notch learning and instruction, and this integration is a perfect example of how we can blend resources that will address individual learning needs and help students improve their readiness for the ACT and beyond.”

Students who answer an ACT Question of the Day incorrectly will have the option to improve their skills by clicking on links to instructional videos that appear below the question window. After viewing the videos, students can complete a short assessment to test their understanding of the concept. Based on their answers, they will be offered “next steps” designed to help improve their understanding.

ACT Profile is a free, mobile college and career planning platform that offers personalized information to help individuals as they navigate through life’s key decision points.

OpenEd utilizes standards-aligned open-source resources that pull educational materials from a variety of sources.

“This integration will benefit students by pinpointing problem areas and providing customized instruction on topics they have yet to fully grasp,” said Adam Blum, CEO of OpenEd. “We are so excited to marry our technology solutions and expertise with ACT’s highly valued test prep resources to create a free, personalized learning experience for students.”