People often say that
death and taxes are the only two things we can be sure of in our lives. Well
for high school students, you can add one more to that list, and that is ‘standardized
testing’. For some this is no big deal, and for others, this can be a very
scary thought. There are tests to get you into high school, college, graduate
school, professional schools, and tests to keep you enrolled in these schools.
After that, there are tests to gain professional certificates and then to keep
those certificates. As someone who was never a good test-taker, I wish tests didn't exist, but they do and we all better get used to that fact.
For high school juniors
and seniors, the SATs and ACTs are a very important part of the college
application process. Although some schools have started going test-optional,
which means they do not consider a student’s standardized test scores for
admission, there are still many questions about the effectiveness of this
option. This is a very new process, and it is important for all students
to research this option before applying test-optional to colleges. Please take
a moment to read an article recently composed by Jennifer Karan, Executive
Director of the SAT Program at the College Board, which talks about their view on test-optional schools:
-Joseph D. Korfmacher, MA
“Test Optional” May Not Mean What You Think It
Means
Much has been made in the
past few years about the ‘test-optional’ approach some colleges have taken
toward admissions. For those not
familiar with the term, this means that these schools do not require students
to submit a college entrance exam score.
At least, that’s what many of them would like you to think.
By making the admissions
process appear a little easier or less cumbersome, higher education – and
everyone else – knows students will be more likely to submit applications. To
wit: in his 2009 report in The Journal of College Admission, Jonathan P.
Epstein examined how dropping test requirements affects recruitment and
enrollment. He said, “With colleges and
universities engaged in intense competition to recruit ever more talented and
diverse students… test-optional policies become alluring.”
Test-optional colleges often
cite grades in core coursework and academic rigor as the most important factors
on an application, and there’s no question that high school GPA is central to
the admission process. What they don’t say is that the SAT actually serves as
an objective validation of the factors like GPA. When test-optional colleges
don’t require an entrance exam like the SAT from every student, they eliminate
a fair and reliable predictor of how the applicant would perform at their
institution.
Despite the label, test-optional schools still see the value in an
SAT score.
College Board score-sending
data indicates that 60 to 80 percent of applicants to test-optional schools
still send SAT scores – and test-optional schools consider these scores when
they’re received. Why? Because students
inherently understand that the SAT corroborates the other academic information
on their application and colleges have seen that prove out time and again in
their retention and graduation rates.
Further, these schools often require scores to be submitted upon
matriculation for course placement,
scholarship opportunities, and internal research, meaning that students
who thought they didn’t need a college entrance exam end up taking one anyway,
often on the fly.
As colleges work to become
applicants’ dream schools, it’s important for students to remember that a
seemingly easier application process – or the “alluring” path, as Epstein put
it – isn’t always best. College entrance
exams provide critical information to students, parents and admission officers
to help inform important decisions that will impact their future.
By: Jennifer Karan, Executive
Director SAT Program at the
College Board