The Minnesota State Legislature, as report by MCRE http://tinyw.in/4Ds4, is seeking to reduce the amount of time devoted to testing by reducing the Minnesota Department of Education’s (MDE) testing budget by one half, limiting the amount of time devoted to test-taking to 10-11 hours. This includes cutting funding for ACTs from providing support for all juniors to take the test to now only juniors who request the test will take it reducing the number taking the ACT, particularly low-income students, given the cost of taking the test. The MDE is also developing a new composition test aligned with the Minnesota Academic Standards.

While it could be argued that there is a need to reduce time devoted to standardized testing, this reduction in funding will mean that fewer juniors, especially low income students, will be able to provide colleges with ACT scores to support their college admissions, raising issues of equity.