When college entrance exams are used as a measure for state and federal accountability, all students must take the tests, and the exams are provided at no cost to them. This removes both a financial and logistical hurdle from the process of applying to college, and it also can help identify college-ready students who wouldn't have opted into taking the test. An article from Chalkbeat, a nonprofit education news organization, cites a study that examined Michigan's ACT testing mandate, which uncovered that college attendance increased by nearly 2 percent after the mandate and by 1 percent for low-income students.
