ACTÔ is an independent, not-for-profit organization in the United States that provides a variety of educational and workforce development services to students at the secondary level and their parents, to high schools and colleges, to professional organizations, to government agencies, and to private businesses. ACT was founded in 1959 by E.F. Lindquist, a professor of Educational Measurement and Statistics at The University of Iowa. Lindquist had earlier developed the Iowa Testing Programs (i.e., educational achievement tests for grades 3-12) and Measurement Research Center (MRC). MRC has developed over the years and was made part of National Computer Systems (NCS), the largest test scoring business in the world. NCS has been acquired by Pearson Education Company of Great Britain, and is now called Pearson NCS Data Management.