Everett Franklin Lindquist (1901–1978) was a professor of education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

 at the University of Iowa

University of Iowa

The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...

. He is best known as the creator of the ACT

ACT

ACT may refer to:* Australian Capital Territory, the capital territory of the Commonwealth of Australia* ACT , a college placement exam in the United StatesIn aviation:...

 and other standardized tests. His contributions to the field of educational testing are significant and still evident today.

Career

Lindquist joined the University of Iowa in 1925 as a research assistant. He received his Ph. D. in 1927 and was a member of the Iowa faculty until retirement in 1969.

Educational Testing

Desiring to create an academic competition for Iowa students, he developed a set of tests in 1929. These evolved into the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, an exam for elementary

Elementary school

An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...

 and middle school

Middle school

Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...

 students, as well as the Iowa Tests of Educational Development

Iowa Tests of Educational Development

The Iowa Tests of Educational Development are a set of standardized tests given annually to high school students in many schools in the United States, covering Grades 9 to 12...

 for high schoolers. Despite their name, they are used nationwide, especially since the enactment of No Child Left Behind legislation. Due to their success, he founded the not-for-profit Measurement Research Center on the Iowa campus to score these tests, which was later acquired by Westinghouse

Westinghouse Electric (1886)

Westinghouse Electric was an American manufacturing company. It was founded in 1886 as Westinghouse Electric Company and later renamed Westinghouse Electric Corporation by George Westinghouse. The company purchased CBS in 1995 and became CBS Corporation in 1997...

, NCS

NCS

-Organizations:* The NATO Codification System* The National Center for Simulation* The National Citizen Service programme in England* The National Compensation Survey* The National Cartoonists Society...

, and its present owner, Pearson PLC

Pearson PLC

Pearson plc is a global media and education company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is both the largest education company and the largest book publisher in the world, with consumer imprints including Penguin, Dorling Kindersley and Ladybird...

.

In 1959, he introduced the ACT

ACT (examination)

The ACT is a standardized test for high school achievement and college admissions in the United States produced by ACT, Inc. It was first administered in November 1959 by Everett Franklin Lindquist as a competitor to the College Board's Scholastic Aptitude Test, now the SAT Reasoning Test...

, an examination to test students on practical knowledge rather than cognitive reasoning examined on the SAT

SAT

The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...

. The ACT is still in widespread use today, and is headquartered in Lindquist's hometown, Iowa City, Iowa

Iowa City, Iowa

Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, State of Iowa. As of the 2010 Census, the city had a total population of about 67,862, making it the sixth-largest city in the state. Iowa City is the county seat of Johnson County and home to the University of Iowa...

. Although it is now administered by the College Board

College Board

The College Board is a membership association in the United States that was formed in 1900 as the College Entrance Examination Board . It is composed of more than 5,900 schools, colleges, universities and other educational organizations. It sells standardized tests used by academically oriented...

, the competing organization to ACT, Lindquist developed the first National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Tests.

Lindquist was on the committee that developed the GED

GED

General Educational Development tests are a group of five subject tests which, when passed, certify that the taker has American or Canadian high school-level academic skills...

, which evolved during World War II as a way to grant academic credit to servicemen.

Testing technology

As a result of the fast-growing use of ITBS tests, he developed the first practical optical mark recognition

Optical mark recognition

Optical Mark Recognition is the process of capturing human-marked data from document forms such as surveys and tests.-OMR background:...

 system as a replacement for the electrical mark sense

Mark sense

Electrographic is a term used for punched card and page scanning technology that allowed cards or pages marked with a pencil to be processed or converted into punched cards. That technology was sold by IBM, its developer, under the term mark sense...

 IBM 805 Test Scoring Machine

IBM 805 Test Scoring Machine

The IBM 805 Test Scoring Machine was a machine sold by IBM beginning in 1937. The device scored answer sheets marked with special "mark sense" pencils. The machine was developed from a prototype developed by Reynold Johnson, a school teacher who later became an IBM engineer...

. Although many of his colleagues at the University of Iowa contributed to the invention, Lindquist is generally credited with this development and is the sole inventor listed on U.S. Patent 3,050,248 (Filed 1955, granted 1962).

Lindquist's first optical mark recognition

Optical mark recognition

Optical Mark Recognition is the process of capturing human-marked data from document forms such as surveys and tests.-OMR background:...

 scanner used a mimeograph paper-transport mechanism directly coupled to a magnetic drum memory

Drum memory

Drum memory is a magnetic data storage device and was an early form of computer memory widely used in the 1950s and into the 1960s, invented by Gustav Tauschek in 1932 in Austria....

. Although it was not a general purpose computer

Computer

A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...

, it made extensive use of computer technology.

Publications

His 1940 book, "Statistical Analysis in Educational Research", laid the groundwork for the need to interpret testing data in smaller settings using accessible means. He was the editor of the first edition of the then definitive work, Educational Measurement (1951) and contributed his own chapter outlining the problems and issues facing his field. These issues are still of great importance today. A second influential book, "Design and Analysis of Experiments in Psychology and Education" (1953), expounded on the ideas mentioned in his first book, cementing his authority as an expert on educational research.

Legacy

The Lindquist Center, home to the School of Education, is currently on the University of Iowa campus and was named in his honor. Additionally, the Lindquist Building on the ACT campus in Iowa City also exists in his honor.

Ironically, although many classes now teach to his tests and ACT preparation is a multimillion dollar industry, Lindquist discouraged teaching to the test

Teaching to the test

Teaching to the test is an educational practice where the curriculum is centered primarily around an end assessment or standardized test. The practice is designed to give students a set range of knowledge or skills that will allow them to enhance their performance on tests...

- in fact, due to this problem, his competitions ended in the late 1930s.