Progress Learning Named a Preferred Test Prep Provider of the ACT® Test

A new strategic partnership brings official content for the ACT® test, past papers, and enhanced score reporting directly into the Progress Learning platform, giving K–12 districts the most comprehensive path to ACT® test readiness available.

We’re thrilled to share some big news with our school and district partners: Progress Learning has been named a Preferred Test Prep Provider of the ACT® test. You can find us listed alongside other strategic partners of ACT here.

For us, this is more than a logo on a webpage. It’s a meaningful step forward in our mission to help every student master their state’s requirements for graduation and walk into test day prepared, confident, and ready to show what they know.

What This Partnership Means for Districts

Preparation for the ACT® test has long been treated as a senior-year sprint. A few weekends of cramming, a handful of practice tests, and hope for the best. We’ve never believed that’s how readiness actually works. Real performance for the ACT® test is built over years of strong, standards-aligned instruction in English, math, reading, and science, the same subjects our platform supports every day from kindergarten through twelfth grade.

This partnership lets us strengthen that long-game approach with official ACT® test content and resources that until now lived outside the classroom workflow. Here’s what’s included:

• Access to 33 past ACT® test papers, representing more than 7,000 official ACT® test items. That includes over 2,450 English items, nearly 2,000 math items, over 1,300 reading items, over 1,300 science items, and 33 writing prompts, all with answer keys and scoring matrices that convert raw scores to ACT® test scores.
• Ongoing access to enhanced ACT® test forms as they become available, plus the materials currently published as free practice on the ACT website.
• The right to build official ACT® test items into our content and assessments, so this content shows up where teachers and students actually use it.
• Co-branded webinars, live events, and professional learning developed jointly by Progress Learning and ACT®, so educators get guidance straight from both sources.
• Use of the Preferred Test Prep Provider designation and associated ACT® marks, giving administrators added confidence in what they’re putting in front of students and families.

Bigger Improvements Coming to Our Platform Features for the ACT® test

Alongside this partnership, we’re rolling out a set of upgrades to our Study Plan for the ACT® test that our product team has been heads-down on for months.

Reporting categories now mirror official score reports for the ACT® test. We’ve reorganized our domains and standards to line up directly with the categories families and counselors see on actual ACT® test score reports:

• English: Production of Writing; Knowledge of Language; Conventions of Standard English Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation
• Math: Number and Quantity; Algebra; Functions; Geometry; Statistics and Probability
• Reading: Key Ideas and Details; Craft and Structure; Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
• Science: Interpretation of Data; Scientific Investigation; Evaluating Scientific Arguments and Models with Evidence

For administrators, this alignment is a game changer. When a counselor pulls a Progress Learning report and an ACT® test score report side by side, the categories match. That means clearer conversations with students about where they are, where they’re headed, and exactly where to spend study time to move the needle.

A bigger, better item bank modeled after released ACT® test items. We’re authoring new questions in the style and rigor your students will see on test day, including:

• Argumentative-style passages in English
• Engineering and design passages in Science
• More passage-based questions across English, Science, and Reading
• More complex, multi-step math problems that ask students to synthesize foundational concepts into high-level, non-routine applications and real-world modeling scenarios

This isn’t surface-level practice. It’s the kind of thinking the redesigned ACT® test is asking students to do, built into the platform you already use.

How Does This Affect States Differently?

If you’re in a state where every junior takes the ACT® test as part of statewide accountability, this partnership is especially significant. Districts in Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, and other states that require the ACT® test already feel the pressure of ACT® test performance showing up in school report cards, accountability ratings, and funding decisions.

For those districts, having a Preferred Test Prep Provider of the ACT® test embedded into the same platform teachers use for Tier 1 instruction, intervention, and state test prep means one less tool to manage, one less vendor to vet, and one more reliable through-line from third-grade reading to twelfth-grade college and career readiness.

In states where ACT® test participation is more of a choice for college-bound students, this partnership still raises the bar. Scholarship eligibility, dual-enrollment placement, and military entrance often hinge on ACT® test scores; giving every student access to official ACT® test content through their school account helps level a playing field that has historically favored families who could afford private tutoring.

How Progress Learning fits

We know districts have options. ACT® works with several strategic partners, each bringing different strengths to the table. What makes Progress Learning distinct is the breadth of what surrounds the ACT® work.

Other test prep providers focus narrowly on the ACT® test itself. We’re the only one bringing official ACT test content into a comprehensive K–12 platform that already supports ELA, math, science, social studies, and college and career readiness, with more than 200,000 standards-aligned items, adaptive intervention through Liftoff for grades 2–8, and reporting tools that give superintendents, principals, and instructional coaches a single view of student performance across every grade and subject.

That means ACT® test readiness isn’t a bolt-on. It’s the natural continuation of work that started years earlier.

What to Expect Next

Over the coming months, you’ll see:

• Updated our Study Plan for the ACT® test rolling out inside the platform, with the new reporting categories and refreshed item bank
• Co-branded webinars with ACT for administrators, counselors, and teachers preparing students for the test
• New family-facing resources explaining what ACT® test scores mean and how students can use them for scholarships and college admissions
• Updated implementation guides for districts in states that require the ACT® test, mapped to your accountability calendar

If your district is already using Progress Learning for College and Career Readiness, your team will get access to these enhancements as they roll out, at no additional cost. If you’re not yet a partner and want to see what this looks like for your students, we’d love to talk.

Reach out to your Progress Learning representative, or book a demo to see our new Study Plan for the ACT® test in action.

ACT® is a registered trademark of ACT, Inc.