OPINION

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By Anne Ross Hope

Photo credit: Pixabay user lecroitg.

Can someone’s intelligence be accurately measured in a 180-minute test? Do 52 reading-based multiple choice questions, 44 writing and language multiple choice questions, and 58 math questions properly evaluate a person’s academic abilities?

Established in 1928, The Scholastic Assessment Test [SAT] was designed to “measure a high school student’s readiness for college, and provide colleges with one common data point that can be used to compare all applicants.” Thankfully, American colleges and universities look at material beyond just test scores in deciding on admissions. 

Photo credit: Pixy.org.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, nationwide testing cancellations have been occurring since March. For example, I was prepared to take the March 14 SAT, but the day before the test date, March 13, the SAT administration was cancelled. Still needing to take the SAT, I signed up for the May and June registrations, but those were cancelled as well. As a result of these nationwide cancellations, the number of test-optional schools (schools where standardized test scores are not required in the college application process) had a drastic increase—from 815 to 1,665+ four year colleges and universities. However, many of these colleges and universities only have a one or two-year plan to be test-optional. Therefore, the SAT (and ACT) continues to be a relevant part of the college application process. 

For some colleges, test-optional policies were adopted a while ago. In the spring of 2008, Wake Forest University went test optional—making it “the first top-30 national university to become test-optional.” As stated in The Washington Post, Martha Blevins Allman, the dean of admissions at Wake Forest University, said “We find more value in a student’s accomplishments in four years of high school than in four hours of Saturday testing.” As more colleges and universities endorse this statement, especially during this pandemic application period, the relevance of standardized testing is debated more now than ever before.  

Photo credit: Wikimedia user Alison Wood.

People often talk about how standardized testing, such as the SAT and American College Testing [ACT], are a measure of how much tutoring one gets. Many parents spend a fair amount of money on tutors, so that students can prepare for the SAT and become familiar with the format and content. However, with resources such as Khan Academy and free Official SAT Practice Tests, there is no dire need to hire tutors. Without question, tutors can predominantly help students prepare for testing, but people can still do well without them. I believe the amount of effort one puts into reflects the score one will receive. However, things do not always go as planned. Someone may study a substantial amount, take the test multiple times, and still not get the score they hoped for. In some students’ and parents’ eyes, the score might not remotely reflect the student’s capabilities. 

Additionally, there is much controversy surrounding whether or not standardized testing is biased. It has been argued that testing is associated with gender, economic, and racial bias. In 2019, lawsuits were filed against the University of California system, that “claim that the tests are biased and don’t predict a student’s potential success.” Due to potential bias in testing and the belief that test scores do not always accurately measure a person, I believe all schools should permanently adopt a test-optional policy. Adopting a test-optional policy would allow students to send their test scores if they felt the results represented them well, but it would also protect students from having standardized testing weigh their application down. Rather than dropping standardized testing in its entirety, I believe schools should be test-optional, because there is still value in standardized testing.

Image credit: Wikimedia user Erjwiki.

With hundreds of thousands of high schools across the nation, it is difficult to weigh the grades received by students equally. Grade inflation is a recurring issue in the school system, so one argument for standardized testing is that it’s “the only way to objectively compare students from different high schools.” In addition to protecting against grade inflation, standardized testing gives students the opportunity to try and enhance their college applications—giving students yet another opportunity to showcase their academic abilities. However, some intelligent people may simply be poor standardized test takers, making it nearly impossible to do well.

Furthermore, due to the pandemic, the current environment makes testing millions of students a neither feasible nor a wise decision. Even if there were a safe way to administer the tests, people are already under stress, so adding a standardized test would only hurt students more. Due to all the considerable pros and cons of standardized testing, I believe colleges and universities should let applicants decide whether or not to send their test scores in.