There\u2019s been a widespread movement among colleges toward optional testing.\u00a0Fair Test<\/a>, a national organization that aims to advance quality education and equal opportunities for students, teachers, and schools, keeps a\u00a0running list<\/a>\u00a0of schools with optional testing. There are over 1,800 across the country.<\/p>\n \u201cThe current generation of high school juniors and seniors have been tested to death,\u201d says Bob Schaeffer, the executive director of Fair Test. The average urban high school student has taken 112 standardized tests by the time they graduate, he says, so teenagers are embracing the opportunity to be judged as more than a score.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen a school says they\u2019re test optional, they know that they\u2019ll be judged on many more factors: not just academics, but community service, leadership, obstacles overcome, special interests \u2014 all the things that make them an individual rather than a three-digit number.\u201d<\/p>\n When a school says they\u2019re test optional, [students] know that they\u2019ll be judged on many more factors \u2014 all the things that make them an individual rather than a three-digit number.<\/p>\n Between \u201cthe data, the discriminatory impact, the success of test optional schools, and increasing the representation of demographic groups in the diversity of their admissions pool,\u201d Schaeffer predicts schools will continue being test optional in the coming years. It means, he says, that admissions offices decided the data proves there are better ways to fairly and accurately make admissions decisions \u201cthat result in more diversity and no loss of academic quality.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat is relying primarily on the academic records of three-and-a-half years of high school grades and course rigor instead of three-and-a-half hours of filling in bubbles,\u201d Schaeffer says. \u201cThat ends up making better predictive decisions and enhancing the diversity of all sorts in their school.\u201d<\/p>\n Why Are Schools Getting Rid of SAT and ACT Requirements?<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s been\u00a0widely discussed<\/a>\u00a0that standardized testing is racist and largely benefits white students. It\u2019s also long been known that these tests are not reliable metrics of what students know \u2014 especially considering the best way to \u201csucceed\u201d is having the financial means for special coaching, prep books, practice tests, and the privilege of taking it multiple times.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir own research shows that the SAT is a weak predictor of undergraduate success, at best,\u201d Schaeffer says. \u201cIt\u2019s even weaker as a predictor for applicants from historically underrepresented demographic groups, including African Americans. So it\u2019s decided in many ways, in many cases, that it was a barrier.\u201d<\/p>\n It was a barrier in both a psychological and tangible way, Schaeffer explained. Schools publicizing an average test score discourages people who scored below that from applying, even if their academic records and other characteristics mean they would be excellent students. Then, if a school really does use the test score to make admissions decisions, Black and lower-income students have lower admissions rates because they tend to have a lower average score.<\/p>\n Their own research shows that the SAT is a weak predictor of undergraduate success, at best.<\/p>\n Finally, after the COVID-19 pandemic upended education as we knew it, institutions of higher education decided to, even if just temporarily, make the SAT and ACT optional for applicants.<\/p>\n Ditching mandatory standardized testing was a common practice among HBCUs for 2022 admissions. Howard University, Hampton University, Spelman College, Morehouse College, Tuskegee University, and Morgan State University are among the HBCUs that opted for optional testing. However, many HBCUs have not yet announced their decisions around optional testing for 2023 admissions.<\/p>\n \u201cWhenever you have other institutions out there that are developing policies and strategies that impact African American students, we\u2019re going to take notice,\u201d says\u00a0Angela Nixon Boyd<\/a>, Dean of Admissions at Hampton University.<\/p>\n The tests, she says, cause a lot of anxiety and stress for students and parents alike. \u201cIf you remove that requirement from a lot of your colleges and universities, then they may have a competitive edge with attracting students. So I think some HBCUs are taking a hard look at that, as well, when they make decisions about their test optional options.\u201d<\/p>\n Is Going Test-Optional Making a Difference?<\/strong><\/p>\n In some cases, we can already see a difference in applications where schools made testing optional.<\/p>\n The University of California system\u00a0compared applications<\/a>\u00a0by race and ethnicity from 2020 to 2022, and there are already slight jumps in applications among African American and \u201cAmerican Indian\u201d applicants. Similarly, the Journal of Blacks in Higher Ed also found\u00a0higher rates of Black students<\/a>\u00a0enrolled in the nation\u2019s top liberal arts colleges.<\/p>\n \u201cThe data from schools that have gone test optional in the last decade is substantially better in terms of increases in diversity,\u201d Schaeffer says. \u201cThere are numbers released by colleges and universities showing significant increases in minority enrollment of all sorts, and Black enrollment in particular.\u201d<\/p>\n As of spring 2021, the College Board was still reporting a significant drop in the total number of people taking the SAT. There was a 31% decline in test takers from 2020 to 2021.<\/p>\n \u201cThe primary factor is the pandemic. In some parts of the country, it remains difficult to find vendors with open space because of the pandemic, so many test centers shut down,\u201d Schaeffer says. \u201cOn top of that, when many admissions offices remove the test score requirements, it wasn\u2019t worth the risk to sit in a testing center when their scores would not be required.\u201d<\/p>\n While the numbers are expected to bounce back this year, Schaeffer says the number of test takers is unlikely to reach what it was in 2020.<\/p>\n At Hampton, the policy is that anyone with a 3.3 GPA or higher has the option to submit SAT or ACT scores with their application. But if your GPA is lower than that, your scores are required.<\/p>\n \u201cSince the pandemic has turned around, I will say, with last year\u2019s class, we probably had maybe 30% of our applicant pool to submit test scores,\u201d Nixon Boyd says. Though it increased to roughly 50% this year, it\u2019s still lower than the 70% of applicants who submitted scores pre-pandemic.<\/p>\n Social factors \u2014 like the pandemic and nation\u2019s \u201cracial reckoning\u201d \u2014 created a more welcoming climate for optional testing.<\/p>\n Probably in the mid part of the last decade, fewer students thought test optional was real, Schaeffer says. \u201cNow they know it is the new normal in college admissions.\u201d<\/p>\n How do Students Decide Whether to Submit Scores?<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s one thing knowing you don\u2019t\u00a0have<\/em>\u00a0to submit SAT or ACT scores, but it can be a mental game of deciding whether you\u00a0should<\/em>.<\/p>\n Nixon Boyd says she\u2019s a \u201cnothing ventured, nothing gained kind of person.\u201d When making admissions decisions, schools are going to consider each applicant\u2019s best credentials.<\/p>\n \u201cThe stronger your application package, the better for everyone involved,\u201d Nixon Boyd says. \u201cAnd I believe that, in a lot of instances, it is not hurting the students to take the standardized test.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s important to check individual school policies, Nixon Boyd says, because some scholarships are tied to submitting standardized test scores.<\/p>\n The stronger your application package, the better for everyone involved.<\/p>\n Of course, not everyone agrees that going test-optional is beneficial to students. After MIT announced on March 28 that they\u2019re going back to requiring SAT scores, Kathryn Paige Harden, a clinical-psychology professor at the University of Texas at Austin, wrote in\u00a0The Atlantic<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cstandardized testing, inequitable as it might be, is more equitable than any other criterion.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDropping any admissions requirement is necessarily a decision to weigh other factors more heavily,\u201d Paige Harden wrote. \u201cIf other student characteristics, such as essays, recommendations, and coursework, are more strongly correlated with family income than test scores are, then dropping test scores actually tilts the playing field even more in favor of richer students.\u201d<\/p>\n Ultimately, says Fair Test\u2019s Schaeffer, it\u2019s up to each individual student to decide if their full portfolio \u2014 both academic and extracurricular \u2014 offers a \u201cholistic and positive representation\u201d of their accomplishments, and if that will be helped or harmed by the score of a single test.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s one of the powers of test optional admissions: it puts that decision about whether the test score is considered in the hands of the applicant,\u201d Schaeffer says. \u201cIt empowers kids to take the option \u2014 or not take it \u2014 rather than having an external rule required.\u201d<\/p>\n Support for this Sacramento OBSERVER article was provided to Word In Black (WIB) by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. WIB is a collaborative of 10 Black-owned media that includes print and digital partners.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Colleges Are Ditching the SAT, But Should Black Students Still Take it?<\/a> appeared first on The Sacramento Observer<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SACRAMENTO OBSERVER \u2014 Like any new practice, it will take some time to accurately characterize any changes. But we are\u00a0quickly seeing\u00a0a change: 90% of schools that use the Common Application are now test optional, and only 43% of applicants submitted scores in 2021, which was down from 77% the previous year.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1415,306,25,1419,2051,4987,26,1362,1339,1772,27,1491,31,120,1443,462,1519,36,1832,39,203,3651,2581,1553],"tags":[2351,5327,5321,2059,5326,5323,79,5325,5320,4680,5322,5331,5330,1373,3869,5324,5329,5319,5328,5318,5332,2278],"class_list":["post-2468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nnpanewswire","category-advocacy","category-anti-racism","category-california","category-children","category-college","category-college-and-careers","category-commentary","category-community","category-descrimination","category-diversity","category-education","category-equity","category-featured","category-financial-aid","category-higher-education","category-history","category-k-12-public-schools","category-national","category-news","category-nnpa","category-nnpa-newswire","category-pathways","category-sacramento-observer","category-standardized-tests","tag-white-students","tag-admissions-offices","tag-admissions-requirement","tag-african-americans","tag-bob-schaeffer","tag-fair-test","tag-featured","tag-high-school-juniors-and-seniors","tag-inequitable","tag-maya-pottiger","tag-paige-harden","tag-practice-tests","tag-prep-books","tag-sacramento-observer","tag-sat","tag-sat-or-act-scores","tag-special-coaching","tag-standardized-testing","tag-standardized-testing-is-racist","tag-university-of-texas-at-austin","tag-weak-predictor-of-undergraduate-success","tag-word-in-black"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/nnpa.org\/education\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Picture1.png\")
Another trend seen during the pandemic is\u00a0soaring application numbers<\/a>\u00a0at HBCUs. Hampton University was\u00a0part of that trend<\/a>, with a 39% increase in applications. Nixon Boyd says she\u2019s seen a slight decrease in the number of students who are opting to submit test scores.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/nnpa.org\/education\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Picture2.png\")
Like any new practice, it will take some time to accurately characterize any changes. But we are\u00a0quickly seeing<\/a>\u00a0a change: 90% of schools that use the Common Application are now test optional, and only 43% of applicants submitted scores in 2021, which was down from 77% the previous year.<\/p>\n