[Inferred] Interpreting Scores on the Enhanced ACT - Guidance for K-12 and Higher Education Institutions

Oct 9, 2026

A policy and implementation guidance brief explains the 2025–26 transition from the legacy ACT to the enhanced ACT, focusing on score interpretation for K–12 and higher education stakeholders. It outlines how enhanced section scores remain interchangeable with legacy section scores, and how the enhanced Composite score is computed using EMR (English, math, reading) rather than EMRS (including science). The brief details the rationale for reducing test length, choices around science administration, and the expectation that score differences will be limited and comparable to normal annual variation, while maintaining reliability, predictive validity, and standards alignment.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time30 min

AccessFree to download

Enhancing the ACT

Purpose and goals for a fairer experience

Flexibility in science and writing administration

Key findings for stakeholders

Interchangeability of section scores

Composite score calculation (EMR vs EMRS)

Expected differences across students

Designing the enhancements

Assessment philosophy and unchanged foundations

Expert panels, alignment, and validation

Linking enhanced and legacy tests

2024 linking study design and standards

Interpreting Scores on the Enhanced ACT: Guidance for K-12 and Higher Education Institutions James Riddlesperger ACT State and Federal Policy © 2025 by ACT Education Corp. All rights reserved. Enhancing the ACT Last year, ACT announced a series of enhancements designed to modernize the ACT test and offer students more choice and flexibility in demonstrating their readiness for life after high school. The enhancements provide students more flexibility by allowing them to choose whether to take the science assessment, thereby reducing the test length by up to one-third. States and districts that administer a school-day ACT are also given more flexibility: they can choose to offer the ACT with or without science, as they currently choose for writing. When science and writing are part of their administration, they have the choice to administer those sections on a separate day from the three core sections of English, mathematics, and reading. We seek to create a fairer, more accessible experience while preserving the ACT’s historic role as a nationally recognized measure of academic achievement and college readiness. These updates address feedback from educators and researchers about balancing efficiency and accuracy in largescale assessments. By reducing test fatigue and simplifying certain elements of the assessment, we seek to create a fairer, more accessible experience while preserving the ACT’s historic role as a nationally recognized measure of academic achievement and college readiness. We have made these enhancements while maintaining the test’s reliability, predictive validity, and alignment with state academic standards. In preparation for the launch of the enhancements, we recently published technical documentation detailing the test development process and the data analyses used to verify that the ACT continues to be a powerful tool for measuring college readiness.1 This brief serves as a guide for stakeholders in secondary and higher education to two key findings of these analyses: 1. We developed the test enhancements to ensure the section scores on the legacy ACT are interchangeable with section scores on the enhanced ACT. As a result, we do not anticipate a need for states or other institutions to revisit the use of ACT section scores in decision-making. 2. The Composite score on the enhanced ACT will be calculated using English, math, and reading section scores (referred to hereafter with the shorthand “EMR”) . This Composite score can be used interchangeably with the Composite score on the legacy ACT, which is calculated with the English, math, reading, and science scores (referred to hereafter with the shorthand “EMRS”), though there are some practical differences in the two scores. It is expected that the scores will differ for some 1 Initial Evidence Supporting Interpretations of Scores from the Enhanced ACT Test summarizes some of the evidence supporting interpretations of the scores from the enhanced ACT. The Enhanced ACT Linking Study Report focuses on psychometric analyses and findings from the June 2024 linking study. students, and individual student differences could result in slightly different score distributions. For most uses, these differences are of a similar magnitude to what stakeholders would experience with the annual variation they see in Composite score distributions. These findings are detailed below. In the following discussion, the “legacy” ACT refers to the version of the test that is being phased out over the 2025-26 calendar years, and the“enhanced” ACT refers to the updated, shortened ACT test experience. Additional information about the enhancements is available on our website.2 Designing the Enhancements Underlying the ACT test is the belief that students’preparation for college and the workplace is best assessed by measuring, as directly as possible, the skills learned in high school that are required for success in first-year collegelevel courses. The req

FAQs

How do enhanced ACT section scores relate to legacy ACT section scores?

The enhancements were developed so that section scores on the legacy ACT are interchangeable with section scores on the enhanced ACT, reducing the need for institutions to revisit decision use of section scores.

How is the enhanced ACT Composite score calculated?

The enhanced ACT Composite score is calculated using English, math, and reading section scores (EMR). The legacy Composite score used English, math, reading, and science scores (EMRS), so practical differences can exist.

What was the purpose of the 2024 linking study between legacy and enhanced ACT forms?

The study confirmed that the enhanced ACT measures the same skills and knowledge as the legacy ACT while maintaining accuracy, fairness, and consistent score interpretation using a large representative sample.

Oct 9, 2026

Uploaded by Genevieve