A number of leading universities just announced they are reinstating the SAT requirement after ditching it, in part because they argue that they promote systemic race inequity.
In recent days, three Ivy League colleges, Yale, Brown, and Dartmouth, have all made the announcement. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology had previously reinstated it in 2022, and the University of Texas at Austin joined this quarter.
After conducting extensive research and study, college leaders claim that the presence of standardized tests like the SAT and ACT entry exams can be used to assess a student’s future educational success the most effectively.
After a few years of being test-optional, institutions have come to the conclusion that GPA alone cannot identify school success, according to Jeremy Wayne Tate, who wrote in an internet for The College Fix. ” A standardized check allows universities to compare apples to apples, but the grade difference between different schools is wildly different,” he said.
The Classic Learning Test, a classically democratic solution to the SAT and ACT, a comparatively new defined test that has been accepted by more than 200 institutions, was founded by Tate.
Ingrid Jacques, a columnist for the USA Today, said to The Fix,” Just because something sounds good or equitable does n’t mean it’s not.”
Jacques wrote a row next month headlined:” Using the SAT, ACT in university admissions is n’t’ prejudiced.’ What else has the left got improper”?
We’ve been told for centuries that standardized tests like those used for college entrance exams are racist, unjust, and cruel, she wrote. ” Maybe not”.
Standardized tests, regardless of where they are from, have always been a reliable indicator of student achievement ( when combined with other factors ), and they provide a consistent indicator of student readiness.
Dartmouth, when it announced in February its choice, had stated the standardized test truly help with diversification.
In a news release, the school stated that defined testing allows us to declare a broader and more varied range of students, opposed to what some have perceived. When quite scores are disclosed,” Contextually strong testing obviously increases the entrance chances of high-achieving applicants from less-resourced backgrounds.”
Similar sentiments were also stated by Brown University in a news release, noting that “data suggested unforeseen negative effects of test-optional procedures in the admissions procedure itself, potentially undermining the goal of increasing exposure.”
Yale echoed related views.
” Yale’s studies from before and after the crisis has consistently demonstrated that, among all software parts, test results are the one greatest predictor of a person’s future Yale results”, Yale stated in a news release.
Tests can help increase rather than decrease diversity in our class if used thoughtfully as part of a whole-person review process.
According to the Ivy League schools, test scores will only be one of many factors when applying for admissions.
Lee Coffin, Dartmouth’s dean of admissions and financial aid, did not respond to a request from The College Fix seeking comment. Yale’s dean of undergraduate admissions and financial aid, Jeremiah Quinlan, also did not respond. Brown’s spokesman Brian Clark directed The Fix to the university’s news release.
The choice by top-tier universities means that others are soon likely to follow, Tate told The Fix.
He said that higher education in America tends to resemble what the ivy leagues do in almost every way. Within the next few years, “hundreds of colleges will return to requiring a test.”
Indeed, UT at Austin announced on March 11 that it would reinstate its SAT and ACT mandate.
Higher graduation rates are attributed to knowledge of standardized test scores, according to a news release from UT. In its news release, UT addressed comments.
Even before the Ivy Leagues, MIT began requiring standardized testing.
In a 2022 news release, the university stated that “our research shows that standardized tests help us better assess the academic preparedness of all applicants” and that they also help us identify socioeconomically underrepresented students who lack access to advanced coursework or other enrichment opportunities that would otherwise indicate their readiness for MIT.
Requests for comment on a Q&, A with MIT’s dean of admissions and student financial services were sent to a Q&, A.
The College Fix was informed by Robert Bortins, CEO of Tate’s CLT and board member of the classical education program Classical Conversations, that” standardized test results can help pair colleges and students in a way that will help both be successful.”
According to Bortins,” The ACT and SAT have changed their tests in a way that has ]inflated scores that makes it difficult for universities to use those tests to accurately understand student readiness.”
According to Bortins,” Colleges need to find new ways to stand out and attract students who will succeed at their institutions” because of the looming college cliff caused by the lack of children born during the 2008 crisis.
Jacques, in her email to The Fix, put it this way:” Requiring the SAT/ACT puts all students on an equal footing and is one of the best predictors of college success”.
MORE: The American Bar Association supports making the LSAT optional for law school.
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