LANSING — Michigan high school juniors will begin taking the SAT as the state-administered college assessment exam in 2016 in lieu of the ACT, the Michigan Department of Education announced Wednesday.

A student takes the ACT test.

The College Board, which administers the SAT, won the three-year $17.1 million contract. According to the Michigan Department of Education, that was $15.4 million less than the next closest bidder.

“The College Board’s SAT test is respected and used around the country,” said State Superintendent Mike Flanagan in a statement, “and Michigan high schools work with them now through their Advanced Placement program that helps students earn college credits while in high school.”

The state began administering the ACT test as a part of its spring testing period for high school juniors in 2007. Students who wanted to take the SAT could still take the test, but they would have had to pay for it and take it outside of school hours.

Starting in 2016, the SAT will be administered in schools for free and students will still be able to pay to take the ACT outside of school hours.

ACT, Inc. will still provide its WorkKeys assessment for all high school students, which is currently a part of the spring testing period. The three-year contract for the WorkKeys assessment will cost $12.2 million.

Both a college entrance assessment and a work skills test are required as a part of state law to be provided for free to all high school students.

Approximately 115,000 Michigan high school students take a college entrance exam and a work skills assessment each year for free.

According to the Michigan Department of Education, the College Board will begin providing schools and students with free test prep materials and online practice tests. The contract includes professional development for test administrators, teachers, students, parents and school counselors in understanding the new test.

The spring 2016 testing period will be the first with a redesigned SAT, which will be aligned to Michigan testing standards.

“The SAT is still a globally-recognized college entrance exam,” said Marty Ackley, director of governmental and public affairs for the Michigan Department of Education. “More so on the east and west coasts than in the Midwest.”

Cyndie Schmeiser, chief of assessment for College Board, said the redesigned SAT will be focused on what matters for college and career success and will reflect what Michigan students are learning in class.

“While the SAT, which is accepted at all Michigan universities, is a familiar exam to many in the state, we will make resources and support services focused on the key features of the redesigned assessment available to districts,” Schmeiser said in a statement. “This information will help districts understand how they can interpret and use the results to propel more students to college and career readiness.”

The announcement caught some in the education community off-guard Wednesday morning.

Wendy Zdeb-Roper, executive director of the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals, said she’s concerned about the timing of the change in test.

“The thing that’s really, really difficult right now is high schools are trying to adapt to Common Core curriculum and the M-STEP (Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress) and online testing,” she said, “and the one thing that’s been consistent is the ACT … now we’re going to switch to a test that we’re completely unfamiliar with.”

The fact that the SAT is being redesigned and spring 2016 will be the first time the new test will be administered also concerned Zdeb-Roper. She said there’s not a lot of material out there to allow students to prepare for the test, since it will be mostly brand new in 2016.

“When the SAT is changing their assessment, it just makes it really difficult to prepare for that,” she said.

Kyle Feldscher is the Capitol education and MSU reporter for MLive Media Group. Reach him via email at kylefeldscher@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter at @Kyle_Feldscher. Read more stories here.