Education: Score for More

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To pick freshmen without a score card is getting to be no way to run a college. Who are they? What can they do? Are they even college material? Soaring enrollment demands precise answers, and only 12% of U.S. colleges (250) belong to the famed College Entrance Examination Board, which serves mainly renowned Eastern institutions.

Last week the other 88% found a sorely needed traffic cop: the new American College Testing Program, brainchild of President E. F. Lindquist of the Measurement Research Center at the State University of Iowa. Using Lindquist's whizbang $1,000,000 scoring machines (6,000 answer sheets an hour), ACT is aimed at Midwestern colleges that have finally started using entrance exams and want to maintain uniform standards.

This fall ACT will screen 150,000 high school seniors aspiring to some 250 colleges in 14 states. Results will go to the student, his school, the colleges of his choice. Price per student: $3, half the usual College Board fee. Another difference: the most widely used board test covers ability in English and math; ACT tests ability in English, math, social studies and natural sciences. Ostensibly, ACT is not competing with the board. With all freshmen due to jump from 711,000 this year to 1,267,000 by 1969, both organizations are likely to share ample business for years to come.