Between November 2019 to February 2020 all organizations receiving ACT College Score Reports began accessing them electronically via the Encoura platform. This replaced all previous methods of delivery including the ACT Internet Reporting Option (AIRO), CD-ROM, and printed/mailed reports. This service is offered at no cost to institutions and educational organizations.
ACT Score Reporting is a service whereby Encoura sends a copy of an ACT Score Report to an institution or educational entity at the request of a student who is interested in their institution or educational opportunities. Students may choose to share their scores while registering for the ACT and have their scores sent immediately after scoring. Additional score report requests can be made by the student online by logging into myACT.
Reporting Dates
Score reports are delivered every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday by default. You can also choose to receive scores Daily or Weekly by adjusting your settings in Data Center.
Availability of Student Reports
Score Reports are provided only to the colleges designated by the student, or to state scholarship entities in some states.
Turnaround Time for Test Results
The ACT is administered nationally on seven separate dates each year. Score Reports for students who took the ACT without writing (aka Multiple Choice) are normally reported as early as two weeks after the test date. See the national test dates here.
Score reports for students who took the ACT with writing will be released only after all their scores are available, normally within 5-8 weeks after the test date.
In states and districts that administer the ACT to all students as part of a contracted agreement, test dates will be determined between the state or district and ACT. Scores for these students are normally reported to students 2-8 weeks after testing.
Score Reports may take additional time to process and deliver if:
- answer documents arrive late
- there are discrepancies in student matching data
- there are unpaid student fees
Reporting of these records occurs after resolution in the next available Score Report file to your organization.
Turnaround Time for Additional Score Requests (ASR)
Students can request additional score reports after they've taken the ACT using myACT. These requests are typically fulfilled within two business days, depending on the delivery settings for the institution.
File Format for Score Reports
ACT Score Reports are available in two formats. A comma-delimited file (CSV) is available for easy integration with other systems. In addition, a print-friendly PDF version is available for schools that wish to print or store images. Details on these formats are available here.
Combined Export
If you're behind on your exports and want to export multiple files at once, you can use the combined export function within Data Center. To do this, simply click the checkbox next to the files you need to download on the Export Files tab. From there you'll see the Combined Export button appear allowing you to export the files as one. You can also change the number of records visible using the 'Items per page' option at the bottom of the screen.
ACT Score Search
If you're looking for a specific test score sent to your institution, you can use ACT Score Search within Data Center. This function allows you to search by name, ACT ID, or registration number to locate a specific test score sent to your institution. You must have permission to see/export ACT Scores to use ACT Score Search. Note that this function only searches for scores sent to your institution.
Canceled Scores
In some cases a score will be canceled after delivery to your institution. In these cases:
- All users with ACT Score Report permissions in Encoura will receive an email regarding every cancelation for a score sent to their institution.
- The canceled record will still appear in ACT Score Search but will be unavailable to download.
Score cancelations occur for a variety of reasons but in all cases the previously delivered score should be considered invalid. In some cases your email will indicate that the score is being updated, in which case you will receive a new version of the score within the next 7 days (and sometimes the same day).
Here are some examples of score cancelations and how the student is notified:
- Student Requested Cancelation – Students can request to have a score canceled. In this case a letter would be sent to the student from ACT confirming the cancelation. In addition, an email notification will be sent to all Encoura users with ACT Score Report permissions.
- Test Security Cancelation – In this case a letter would go to both the high school and to the student from ACT. In addition, an email notification will be sent to all Encoura users with ACT Score Report permissions.
- Score Updates – If a score is updated for any reason (typically for State/District tests) a letter would go to the student from ACT. In addition, an email notification will be sent to all Encoura users with ACT Score Report permissions.
- Biodemographic Corrections - If biodemographic information is updated due to a name, address, or other change, the score may be canceled in order to send new reports with updated student data. In this case no notifications are sent to the student but an email notification will be sent to all Encoura users with ACT Score Report permissions.
If a score is canceled or updated that is part of a superscore, each institution will receive a score cancelation email and a new superscore will be sent.