On Apr. 8, Illinois schools switched from the SAT to the ACT – a transition that was marred by frustrating delays, technical difficulties, and an all-around lack of clear communication.
The testing day began with high expectations but quickly descended into chaos when teachers faced significant delays.
“We knew what to do, but at 8:00 in the morning, when we were ready to get started, students could not get into the system, and that was the fault of the ACT,” said test proctor Mr. Gunninck. “That led to many rooms, not all of them, but many, being unable to start for at least an hour while the ACT worked on whatever technical issue was happening.”
While some rooms fixed their technical problems early, major discrepancies within the ACT system over which rooms had admin status led to extremely late starts.
“We had further problems in our room because our room was mislabeled..our testing coordinators were unable to access the system to fix it… By the time our students got started, it was 10:00—two hours after they were supposed to start,” said Mr. Gunninck.
Several unlucky classes of students faced technical issues that prevented them from taking the ACT entirely that day.
“The teachers were like, ‘Oh yeah, it’s not loading, but we’ll have it up pretty soon, so we’ll start as soon as it starts.’ And that went on for at least a couple of hours… At our supposed testing time, which was 11:15, we got up there, but it didn’t feel like anyone was really prepared,” said Emmit Taylor ‘26. “Then a teacher came in and said, ‘Yeah, you guys can just go home. We’re not taking it today,’”.
The lack of communication about testing times was a major point of frustration for delayed students.
“I think they could have given us more information while it was happening,” said Taylor. “I really wish they would’ve just said, ‘Hey, if we get this up before a certain time, we’re going to take it,’ rather than just leaving us in the dark and having us ready at any moment.”
Jones wasn’t alone in having issues with the test- many schools across Illinois experienced similar issues, largely due to their unfamiliarity with administering the ACT.
“We knew how to deliver an online SAT—we knew how it worked. We’d done practice SATs online, and the students had done practice SATs online. We knew that process. The state made us switch to the ACT, and it was mid-year, so there was no way of knowing what would happen,” said Mr. Gunnick.
Students who experienced technical difficulties will have the opportunity to take – or retake – the ACT on any school day between April 22 and May 2. The problems with the ACT highlighted the need for having clear protocols and emergency plans in place ahead of time.
“Having a clear cut-off for when to cancel the test would ease some of the anxiety both students and proctors had about not being sure what was going to happen,” said Mr. Gunninck. “I don’t fault the school for not knowing what to do… But in the future, having that protocol in place—probably set by the district—would be a good idea.”
