ACT Recommends Points Parents to High Quality Resources Designed to Help Improve Learning

IOWA CITY, IOWA—ACT, Inc., the nonprofit developer of the ACT® test and leading authority in academic measurement, today launched ACT® Recommends™, a free online tool that points parents toward high quality learning resources—recommended by ACT—that can help address their children’s learning needs.

“Parents tell us they feel helpless, even desperate, when their children struggle in school or need assistance with studying or learning,” said ACT Chief Commercial Officer Suzana Delanghe. “They want to help their kids, but they’re not teachers, and they don’t know the best ways to do that. They’re left searching the internet, where they struggle to sort out the good options from the bad. With ACT Recommends, we’re using our expertise to help point them toward the right choices.”

ACT’s recommendation engine helps match the right learning resources to the student’s particular needs. The resources are designed to help students from kindergarten up to 12th grade who have academic issues or who want homework practice or simply enrichment.

Some of the resources are free, while others are available for a fee, with most under $10. Parents may choose the best option for their budget.

The resources featured in ACT Recommends will be researched, tried and approved by ACT’s academic and learning experts. ACT will continue to build out the product catalog, selection criteria and recommendation engine moving forward based on feedback from parents and analysis of learning data.

“This is another step forward in ACT’s evolution toward becoming a learning, measurement and navigation company,” said Delanghe. “We are excited to use learning science experts’ knowledge to match the right kind of learning experience to students’ learning goals.”

ACT Recommends leverages the expert knowledge of learning scientists from ACT’s Innovative Research and Consulting team as well as ACTNext’s strength in data analytics.

When appropriate, ACT Recommends directs students to ACT Academy as well as to other learning resources and specific educators who have demonstrated understanding of the best methods of teaching content covered on the ACT.

ACT launched ACT Academy—a free, online learning platform—earlier this year to help students around the world pinpoint areas of academic weakness, improve their ACT scores and master the core skills they need to prepare for success in college and career. ACT Academy provides students with access to the world’s leading collection of online learning resources. The platform, available at www.academy.act.org, delivers an individualized learning plan tailored to each student’s particular academic needs.

Parents may access ACT Recommends on the ACT website.