Atlanta Public Schools will not offer the standardized ACT test in the spring. This is one of two tests — the other being the SAT — required by many universities nationwide to be considered for admission.
There is only a finite number of times the ACT is offered nationally each year. However, school districts are capable of paying for the exam and administering it to students, waiving the typical cost for one standard ACT exam of $68. Former Testing Coordinator Phoebe Chung explained the previous process of giving the exam.
“I administered the exam to the eleventh graders here at Midtown,” Chung said. “The district has been giving the ACT for at least the past three years. I found out at the beginning of the school year as I was looking at my testing calendar that we would not be doing it this year.”
According to College Board, over 2 million students of the graduating class of 2025 took the SAT, and the official ACT website reports that 1.4 million students took the ACT. Chung explained that each junior is given the opportunity to take the exam. For Midtown, 456 juniors in the class of 2027 would have otherwise been given the ACT this school year.
“The number of students in the eleventh grade class is the number of tests we administer each year,” Chung said. “On testing day, all I have to do is log into the testing platforms, and the students with the exams have already been uploaded by the district.”
The ACT and the SAT have different structures that better tailor to the needs of different learners. For the state of Georgia, 53% of students have taken the SAT in the year 2025. Despite the SAT having a slight majority in the number of takers, the ACT still remains the predominant choice for many students. School counselor Dr. Chelsea Falcone said this trend is reflected at Midtown.
“I get more requests for the SAT than the ACT from students,” Falcone said. “Students definitely take the ACT, but it seems more like a secondary exam to them versus the SAT which is typically their preferred exam.”
However, some students depend on the district-paid fee for standardized tests. Still, for students who are geared towards the ACT, other options are available for support.
“The students who qualify for free or reduced lunch can get a waiver, and that waiver will ultimately waive the cost of the exam,” Falcone said. “To do this, the students can create an ACT account with their counselor or college advisors, and then if they qualify for free or reduced lunch, they can ask their counselor for a waiver.”
Having experimented with both exams, junior Dabney Bond prefers the ACT to the SAT. Bond expressed frustration with the news of no ACT being offered through the district this year, as she was counting on the exam date as one of her opportunities to take the test.
“I have taken mock-tests of both the ACT and SAT,” Bond said. “I took a few practice exams of each type before taking the real ones to gauge which one I felt the best about. After I got my scores back on the practices, it was obvious that I was better at taking the ACT.”
Bond said that both of her older siblings were given the opportunity to take the exam at school. Explaining that they had each achieved their highest scores on the school-administered exam and spoke very highly of it. Additionally, Bond takes classes to help her prepare for the ACT.
“Now that I know we aren’t taking the exam through the school, I’ve had to rearrange my tutoring classes and sign up for the February exam,” Bond said. “It may not sound that hard to switch around the sessions, but since I never saw anything about there being no school test, I’m just now having to reschedule and most of the classes are full.”
504 Coordinator Susanna Roberts works closely with other faculty on the Student Support Team towards helping students and their families with educational accommodations to ensure the best environment for learning. She expresses her opinion on the ACT not being given at the school this spring and its implications on the future.
“I wish that it was being offered, because I think it takes a burden off of students by way of having the ACT offered in an easily accessible location and having it already scheduled for you. However, it wasn’t our decision and was made at the district level,” Roberts said. “Ultimately I think it will just mean that students will have to adjust to signing up for it outside of school. Our counselors are great with supporting students in this process.”
