US debate on standardised tests at post-Covid crossroads

The push to eliminate standardised tests in US college admissions appears to have hit a crossroads, with institutions largely keeping their pandemic-era rejectionist policies, but apparently hesitant to adopt more aggressive versions.

Nearly 90 per cent of all four-year US institutions have dropped their requirements that most applicants submit an SAT or ACT standardised test, with few reversals, according to FairTest, an advocacy group that opposes such tests.

That was a “major victory” for the effort, representing a doubling of the share prior to the pandemic, said Robert Schaeffer, FairTest’s public education director.

Yet the overwhelming share of US institutions still look at standardised test results if students provide them, and many institutions still allocate scholarship money based on test results – both practices that FairTest sees as harmful to racial and economic diversity.

By numbers, the advocacy group said, more than 2,000 US campuses did not require SAT or ACT scores, but only 86 of those refused to look if applicants for admission submitted them.

Campus leaders weighing that question include Reginald DesRoches, the president of Rice University, one of many institutions that adopted a test-optional policy at the beginning of the pandemic, in recognition of the disproportionately heavy difficulties that societal shutdowns imposed on lower-income communities.

Campus resource: How to ensure college admissions are equitable and accessible

Professor DesRoches said the policy had helped Rice to enrol more students from under-represented minority groups – but barely, with their share rising from 29 per cent of the student body in 2019 to 32 per cent this year.

“Since implementing a test-optional policy, we have seen slight gains in Hispanic student enrolment and maintained African American student enrolment, while going through a period of overall enrolment growth,” he said.

It was generally true, Mr Schaeffer said, that universities gained even more in their pursuit of student diversity if they went beyond test-optional and refused to even accept standardised test results. But FairTest had not overtly pushed for campuses to adopt that policy, because so many students and admissions officials wanted that option, he said.

FairTest was more concerned, Mr Schaeffer said, with trying to keep colleges from ending their test-optional policies now that pandemic restrictions had largely ended. “So far, only a handful of schools have reverted,” he said.

That is demonstrated by the fact that the SAT and the ACT have managed to maintain fairly robust sales, even as the number of test-optional US campuses has soared. The SAT sold about 1.7 million tests last year, down from about 2.2 million just before the pandemic. The ACT had about 1.4 million student users, down from about 2.1 million in 2016.

Standardised admissions tests have been a topic of regular debate for years, with evidence showing that high test scores do predict student success in college, but also reflect family wealth and social advantage.

The ACT reported last month that its average composite score fell to 19.5 for the class of 2023, down 0.3 points from last year. “The hard truth is that we are not doing enough to ensure that graduates are truly ready for post-secondary success in college and career,” the ACT’s chief executive, Janet Godwin, said in announcing what her company called a sixth consecutive year of shrinking average scores, with declines across every academic subject.

But such declines – also reported by the SAT – probably reflected the lingering effects of the pandemic, during which students encountered a number of difficulties, including remote instruction and family stresses, Mr Schaeffer said.

paul.basken@timeshighereducation.com