ACT, Pearson adjust to changes in marketplace

CEDAR RAPIDS - With an announcement this past week that it no longer will require applicants to take the ACT or SAT exams, George Washington University became one of the most recognizable American universities to go 'test-optional.”

More than 180 colleges and universities featured in the U.S. News and World Report's 2015 ranking have such policies, according to the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, or FairTest, which tracks the changes. That list includes Drake University in Des Moines.

Universities have cited concerns about access to higher education for underprivileged students in announcing test-optional policies. Students from low-income families might not have access to as much test preparation as their middle- and upper-class peers, the thinking goes.

And some of those students might have such low test scores - despite other academic strengths - that they choose not to apply to some colleges at all.

The test-optional trend also comes as many high school students in other states choose to opt out of standardized testing, and amid political pushback against the Common Core academic standards, to which some standardized tests are tied.

Those anti-testing sentiments have at least the potential to affect Iowa City-based ACT Inc. and London-based Pearson PLC, which has offices in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City.

ACT employs about 1,100 people in Iowa City, spokesman Ed Colby said. And Pearson has 1,400 regular employees and 900 seasonal employees - mostly test scorers and warehouse workers - in Iowa, spokeswoman Laura Howe said.

Pearson's Iowa City office develops and scores many of the company's tests, Howe said.

Pearson has lost state testing contracts this year with New York and Texas, and the Iowa Department of Education does not have any current contracts with ACT or Pearson, said Jim Flansburg, a department spokesman.

Pearson this month let go more than 200 employees in Texas. The company was disappointed to lose the contracts, Howe noted, but testing is only one part of its education business.

Pearson last week also announced its sale of the Financial Times newspaper to Nikkei Inc., a move it said would allow it to concentrate on its education business.

'Pearson will now be 100 percent focused on our global education strategy,” CEO John Fallon said in a statement. 'The world of education is changing profoundly, and we see huge opportunity to grow our business through increasing access to high quality education globally.”

The company also is in discussions to sell its 50 percent stake in the Economist magazine.

Howe and Paul Weeks, ACT's senior vice president of client relations, said their companies are focused on making sure students are ready for college or a career.

At ACT, that work includes gathering more research on underprivileged students and finding ways to help them succeed after high school.

'The role of assessment is being revisited,” Weeks said. 'The assessment industry is being challenged along with everyone else to keep up with education reform.”

But anti-testing movements reflect an outdated understanding of the ACT, he said.

'What keeps us up at night here at ACT aren't those things,” Weeks said. 'Those things are distractions,” he added, though the company keeps an eye on them.

Organizations that offer test preparation material for high school students - often those from higher-income families - are a concern for ACT, Weeks said. But the company has made efforts to redress any imbalance and increase access to test prep materials for all students, he said by making retired test forms and other materials available. (Testing companies usually do not give out current test forms, citing concerns about cheating.)

'There's a booming test prep industry, unfortunately, that really does prey on the anxiety of families,” Weeks said.

But the ACT exam is no longer used solely as a 'gatekeeper” for college admission, Weeks said. Instead, by allowing the company to gather data about students' demographics and the high-school courses they've taken, the test can help ACT and other education institutions better understand what students need to do to succeed after high school.

And because 20 states - but not Iowa - now use the ACT as a standardized test for all students, ACT has a broader base of data from which to study those patterns, Weeks explained.

The trend of test-optional college admissions does not cause concern about the ACT becoming obsolete, Weeks said, but it could hurt students who gain information about their career options from the ACT exam and ACT's interest inventory materials.

'I worry about the mixed message of, ‘This test isn't important,'” Weeks said. 'Where else are they going to get their career planning information?”