A New Path to College: "... There are a number of unanswered and important questions about test-optional policies.".

AuthorBackstrom, Brian
PositionEDUCATION

HIGH SCHOOL students are facing a far different college application process this year than did their peers just a few years ago. In 2019, most college-bound juniors would spend the early spring running through SAT and ACT test prep quizzes. Today, many high school juniors will be preparing college applications that give them the option of not including any standardized test scores, regardless of their decision on whether to take these tests. In other words, the landscape of college admissions is changing.

Even as COVID-19 campus restrictions are relaxed and universities return to (somewhat) normal, many admissions offices have adjusted the information required to be submitted with college applications, specifically, the requirement to take standardized tests and report those scores. Some of these changes are permanent, and all are changing the face of the college application process and influencing the futures of their schools.

Let's start with some definitions:

Test-required. All applicants are required to submit scores and the scores are considered in admissions decisions. A limited number of exemptions could be granted to take into account individual circumstances.

Limited test-required. General admissions are test optional, but applicants still are required to submit test scores to be considered for specific programs or merit-based scholarships.

Test-optional. Test scores are reviewed and considered for admissions only when submitted.

Test-blind. Test scores are not considered in the admissions decision even if submitted.

In this article, we provide an overview of the test-optional movement, the impact of COVID on the application process and college admissions decisions, and the role standardized tests may play in the future of the college admissions process.

The test-optional movement began to gain speed prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, largely as a move to address concerns of socioeconomic biases in standardized college admissions test results, as research found a correlation of scores to race, socioeconomic status, and gender. More than 10% of all "selective" institutions--i.e., smaller liberal arts colleges--adopted test-optional policies between 1987 and 2015. Most of the limited research done on this restricted pool of institutions, however, found little increase in diversity on campuses from the enactment of test-optional admissions policies.

A more comprehensive look, albeit still among a limited pool of institutions adopting test-optional admissions primarily as a way to achieve greater diversity of their...

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