50th Anniversary of ACT Test this Saturday

ACT Founded in Iowa City in 1959

Saturday marks the 50th anniversary of the ACT college admission and placement exam. The first ACT test was administered on Nov. 7, 1959, to approximately 75,000 college-bound high school students in 16 states.

Use of the Iowa City-based ACT test grew rapidly. Within two years of its launch, it was administered in all 50 states and the annual number of test-takers — nearly 133,000 students in the first year — had more than doubled to nearly 309,000 students.

Over the past 50 years, more than 64 million ACT tests have been administered in all 50 states and in more than 120 countries around the world. In the national high school graduating class of 2009, a record nearly 1.5 million students — 45 percent of all U.S. graduates—took the ACT.

ACT was organized as the American College Testing Program during a meeting at the Old Capitol building in Iowa City on Aug. 21, 1959. Co-founders E.F. Lindquist and Ted McCarrell created the organization to respond to a need they saw for a national standardized achievement test that would help colleges make accurate admission and course placement decisions for students possessing a broad range of skills.