Thanks for the link, @payn4ward. Meltzer’s article is indeed a good read, but I’m not convinced that the ACT is going to be “marginalized.” On the contrary, my impression is that students in many Asian countries, at least, are switching to the ACT in droves, precisely because the reading section is so “inferior.” Many Asian students who can barely break 1800 on the current SAT can score above 30 composite on their first ACT diagnostic test simply on the strength of the Math and Science, the relatively easy (compared to SAT Writing) English, and the silly, stupid Reading.
My impression has always been that colleges and universities don’t even pay attention to ACT Reading and the Science, which literally test almost nothing more than the speed with which a person can retrieve information verbatim from the text (not a terribly important skill for college, in my experience). That means they are making decisions based on the Math, which I guess is legit, and on the English, which is largely a test of elementary school punctuation rules (the difference between “its,” “it’s,” and the non-existent “its’,” for example).
@marvin100 's posts are also excellent. It’s stunning how many test prep experts persist in calling the ACT the “more popular” test. It may, in fact, be more popular–but the numbers are not an indication of student preference.