BY KATIE TIAN and ANDY LIU
In recent years, increasing doubt about college entrance exams’ abilities to predict students’ capabilities led many colleges to remove testing requirements for the ACT and SAT scores. According to Study International, as of February of 2020, nearly 40% of colleges in the country were test-optional.
In May of 2020, the University of California school system announced that it would no longer consider standardized test scores, beginning with the 2023 admissions season.
FairTest is an American not-for-profit organization that works to end the misuse of standardized testing. Interim Executive Director of FairTest Robert Schaeffer spoke in favor of the UC school system’s decision. He said, “What you do over 3 years in high school go together to make a richer, broader, more accurate picture, as compared to how well you fill in bubbles for 3 hours on a Saturday morning.”
However, ACT Vice President of State and Federal Programs Catherine Hofmann warned that the increased dependence on GPA was detrimental to underprivileged students. She said, “I’m most worried about that student in a rural school, who doesn’t have any AP classes, who maybe doesn’t have online at home and has to drive to the library parking lot to do their classes. Are they getting the same fair shot? Are they able to say ‘my grades may not be predictive of what I can do?’ When we go test-optional and test-blind, are we leaving out a large segment of our underserved students?”
Teachers in the Jericho school district have varying opinions as to whether the benefits of admissions tests outweigh the drawbacks. Math teacher Ms. Survilla pointed out the income-related scoring gaps in tests like the SAT and ACT. She said, “Lower-income communities, unfortunately, don’t have the means to pay someone to help them prep.”
Science teacher Ms. Ciasulli, however, believes that circumstances do not have a significant impact on test scores. She said, “I know students that have gone to schools that aren’t in the best of neighborhoods, that are not as affluent as Jericho at all. And they get accepted into one or more Ivies.”
Students are also split on the issue. Senior Imama R. said, “I don’t believe that the SAT and the ACT are really useful ways of calculating how much intelligence a student has, or how prepared they are for college.”
However, junior Oscar Y. believes that alternative measures are too subjective. He said, “GPA is just a part of what you can do. And some classes value projects or participation, and I’m not one to speak out in class, so this would negatively impact my grades. Currently, standardized testing is a more solid strategy.”
According to College Kickstart, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the lack of testing led to 90% of colleges not requiring SAT and ACT scores. The class of 2021 experienced the college admissions season under largely test-optional conditions.
Adelphi University is among the many colleges that went test-optional this year. Director of Undergraduate Admissions Stephanie Espina said, “Given the scenarios and the lack of access to testing that was brought on by COVID, we really needed to take action so that we could be as accessible as possible to students.”
Senior Neomi C. said, “I think it’s nice for so many colleges to give current high school seniors this flexibility with testing. It definitely relieved a lot of stress among my peers.”
On January 19, 2021, College Board announced that it was permanently eliminating the SAT Subject Tests and the optional essay portion of the SAT, to adapt to recent changes and reduce demands on students.
Students who previously registered for SAT Subject Tests had their payments refunded.
Senior Ariel K. spoke in favor of this decision. She said, “I’ve noticed that a lot of kids don’t know what SAT IIs are, and especially since most public schools aren’t giving that much support for it, I think it makes sense to eliminate it.”
Senior Fatema R. pointed out the benefits of keeping SAT Subject Tests. She said, “They focus on specific subject areas that people will go into in college. For example, if you’re going into medicine, you might take a biology subject test to show your understanding of biology.”
It remains to be seen how these policy changes will affect the college application process in the long run and how many colleges will revert to test-mandatory policies once the pandemic is over.