There are lots of people who want to eliminate standardized testing for college applicants. Some claim that the SAT and ACT are unfair; others are just intent on lowering our educational standards. Covid gave them an excuse to push their agenda by having colleges and universities declare a waiver of standardized-test scores because the tests weren’t being administered in 2020 and 2021.
That excuse is now gone, and it is time for colleges and universities to resume the requirement that students submit an SAT or ACT score with their application. So argues Ashlynn Warta in today’s Martin Center article.
She focuses specifically on the UNC system, which decided to temporarily waive the testing requirement back in 2020. That was reasonable, but now that waiver has been extended to 2025.
Warta writes, “This temporary policy now lasts through 2025; it has been considered controversial and a lowering of standards by some, since students with poor test scores can be admitted if their GPA meets the requirement. It is perhaps more controversial now due to the standardized testing waiver. The UNC System needs data that compare students’ GPAs, test scores, and graduation rates in order to determine if this is a good admissions policy. However, it is unlikely that the System will have those data, since it has waived the testing requirement for four of the five years of the pilot.”
The opponents of standardized testing say that a student’s high-school grades are quite good enough to determine his ability to handle the academic work, but that’s not convincing. Grade inflation has so undermined the reliability of grades that they are not particularly useful these days.
So, why continue the testing waiver any longer? Warta suggests the reason: “Contrary to what the UNC System thinks, the testing waiver is not helping students. Instead, it appears to be an attempt to pad enrollment numbers by reducing standards. It’s easy to boost enrollment when more applicants meet one’s (lowered) acceptance standards. And given that enrollment is down nationwide (and within the UNC System), it’s easy to draw this conclusion.”