Last week, Yale University announced it is reinstating a requirement that prospective students include scores from standardized tests such as the SAT or ACT in their applications. It joins Dartmouth College as the second Ivy League school to reinstate standardized test score requirements after they and many colleges across the country went “test-optional” during the pandemic. Other schools that have since reinstated these requirements include MIT, Georgetown, and Purdue.
The rolling return of standardized test score requirements has reignited debate over the efficacy and fairness of using test scores in admissions decisions.
Before diving into the viewpoints, some brief definitions of the policy categories:
- Test-required: Standardized test scores from the SAT or ACT are required in applications. Examples: Florida and MIT. (Some schools, like Yale, allow for alternative tests such as the Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB).)
- Test-optional: Students may submit standardized test scores for consideration but will not be penalized for omitting them. Examples: Michigan and Harvard.
- Test-free: Schools will not consider an applicant’s test score even if they submit them. (Some nuances exist within this category.) Examples: Caltech and University of California.
According to FairTest data, approximately 1,934 colleges are test-optional and 89 are test-free as of this writing.
For context: The Supreme Court last year ruled in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard that colleges could no longer consider race in admissions decisions (with some exceptions). Opponents of the ruling expressed concern it would effectively reduce diversity on college campuses, with some observers suggesting it could complicate the use of standardized test scores. Supporters emphasized the ruling’s potential to encourage color blindness and more merit-based admissions. (Under the ruling, admissions departments are still able to consider socioeconomic status and other demographic factors.)
Much of the debate centers around whether or not colleges should require standardized test scores. Below are notable viewpoints to help you better understand the topic and form a viewpoint of your own.
Notable viewpoints
SUPPORTIVE OF REQUIRING TEST SCORES
Standardized test scores increase enrollment access for underprivileged applicants.
- According to studies in several states, standardized testing can help identify talented disadvantaged students who would otherwise go undetected.
- Test scores can be evaluated within the context of an applicant’s socioeconomic background and their use has increased diversity at institutions such as MIT.
- SAT and ACT scores are fairer and more objective criteria than those that can be more easily inflated by higher-resourced applicants such as grades, college essays, and extracurricular activities.
- Dartmouth found its test-optional policy discouraged some lower-income / lower-test-score students from submitting scores that would have helped them given the context of their background.
- More ubiquitous test score requirements would help increase the number of disadvantaged enrollees; Opportunity Insights Group found that students from the top 1% of income level make up a larger portion of the student body at elite institutions than would be expected based on their test scores.
Standardized test scores are better predictors of college success.
- According to its own research, MIT’s “ability to accurately predict student academic success at MIT is significantly improved by considering standardized testing – especially in mathematics – alongside other factors.”
- Some research, including studies from University of California (2020) and Opportunity Insights Group (2023), indicate that standardized test scores are better predictors of first-year college GPA than high school GPA.
- Grade inflation has been on the rise since 2009 and has accelerated since 2016, weakening the predictive power of high school grades on college performance.
- Standardized test scores, together with high school GPA, are a greater combined predictor of college success than high school GPA alone.
College admissions should be based more on likelihood to succeed than equity.
- Schools should prioritize merit over equity and standardized test scores are the most objective predictor of success.
- Equity in admissions is “not all about who comes in the door but also who goes out.” (Stu Schmill, MIT Dean of Admissions.)
OPPOSED TO REQUIRING TEST SCORES
Standardized test scores decrease enrollment access for underprivileged applicants.
- The SAT and ACT are better measures of student income level than of performance; Opportunity Insights Group, for example, found students in the top 1% of wealth are 13x likelier to score 1300 or higher on the SAT than low-income students.
- The correlation between family income and SAT score is 3x as strong as the correlation between family income and high school GPA according to a 2017 study by UC Berkeley researcher Saul Geiser.
- Between 2020-2021, enrollment of lower-income, black, and high-GPA students increased at selective private colleges where test-optional became pandemic policy; a separate study found a similar pattern in schools that switched to test-optional between 2005-2015.
- Test-optional gives more young people the best opportunity to present the best of who they really are; research shows low-income applicants with high grades and low test scores are more likely to be accepted at test-optional schools.
- Because standardized test scores skew lower for disadvantaged groups, the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling to prohibit the consideration of race in admissions processes curbs the ability of universities to control for racial disparities.
High school GPA is a better predictor of college success.
- High school GPA is a better predictor of college graduation rate than standardized test scores based on a 2020 study from University of Chicago researchers.
- Students with strong high school GPAs and low test scores are more likely to have a strong college GPA than students with low high school GPAs and strong test scores, according to a 2010 College Board study.
- Oft-cited studies such as those from Opportunity Insights Group and University of California that conclude standardized test scores are better success predictors than high school GPA suffer from statistical misinterpretation and omitted variable bias.
Standardized testing for admissions is a form of racism and exclusivity.
- Standardized testing is founded in eugenics and continues to use biased test-question algorithms that discriminate against minority groups.
- Standardized tests discriminate against disadvantaged minorities due partly to inequities in access to test prep and “have become the most effective racist weapon ever devised to objectively degrade Black and Brown minds and legally exclude their bodies from prestigious schools.” (Ibram X. Kendi, Director of the Center for Anti-Racist Research at Boston University.)
- Championing the end of test-optional policies is a misguided effort to preserve elitism at elite institutions and favor those with wealth and privilege.
SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN
We should spend more time addressing the inequalities that drive achievement gaps than debating standardized testing.
- Including or excluding standardized test requirements for college admissions won’t address fundamental socioeconomic gaps affecting disadvantaged students.
- There are more effective options for reducing achievement gaps such as “universal pre-K, increased funding for schools in low-income neighborhoods, and reduced residential segregation.”
- “Getting rid of the test doesn’t make the disparity go away. It just makes it invisible in the eyes of the public. For me, that’s the wrong direction.” (David Denning, Harvard Economist.)
- Varying data demonstrate average test scores are significantly higher for white and Asian students than for black and Latino or Hispanic students, “a likely result of generations of exclusionary housing, education, and economic policy.” (Ember Smith and Richard V. Reeves, Brookings Institution.)
The value of standardized test scores varies by school and so should admissions policies.
- Elite colleges are more likely to require standardized test scores given the number of high-GPA applicants they receive.
- Schools such as Wooster, Tennessee, and Iowa have emphasized that non-test criteria are adequate in predicting an applicant’s chance of succeeding on their campuses.
- Rather than find the best students, colleges should aim to maximize social mobility and a lottery system could help achieve this.
- The University of California would prefer alternative standardized tests to the SAT or ACT but discontinued test requirements because “there isn’t right now a test or an assessment that we feel comfortable using in our admissions process.”
- There are schools that have been test-optional for a long time and it has worked for them (e.g., Williams, Bowdoin).
From the source
Read more from select studies referenced in this week’s viewpoints:
- Dartmouth College: Report on the Role of Standardized Test Scores in Undergraduate Admissions (2024)
- Opportunity Insights Group: Diversifying Society’s Leaders? The Determinants and Causal Effects of Admission to Highly Selective Private Colleges (2023)
- ACT: Grade Inflation Continues to Grow in Past Decade (2022)
- College Board: New Evidence on Recent Changes in College Applications, Admissions, and Enrollments (2022)
- Zachary Bleemer, UC Berkeley: Top Percent Policies and The Return To Postsecondary Selectivity (2021)
- University of California: Final Report of the Academic Council’s Standardized Testing Task Force (STTF) (2020)
- Brookings: SAT math scores mirror and maintain racial inequity (2020)
- National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP): 2019 NAEP High School Transcript Study (HSTS) Results (2019)
- Saul Geiser, UC Berkeley: Norm-Referenced Tests and Race-Blind Admissions: The Case for Eliminating the SAT and ACT at The University of California (2017)
Be heard
We want to hear from you! Share your perspective on standardized testing in college admissions and we might feature it in our socials or future newsletters. Reply to us in the format of your choosing (video, audio, or text). Below are potential discussion topics to consider.
- Are you for or against using standardized test scores in college admissions?
- Which of the viewpoints in this week’s issue resonate with you most?
- Where do you see flaws within viewpoints that you generally agree with?
Give us your feedback! Let us know how we can improve.
#BTW
A heartfelt cover of a Willie Nelson classic by his son, Lukas Nelson.
