Colleges evaluate SAT exam, question use in admissions

Sept. 29, 2008

By Sommer Ingram
Staff Writer

Colleges are being prompted to re-assess the use of traditional, standardized testing in the admissions process.

The National Association for College Admission Counseling convened a special panel last week, which encouraged colleges to conduct validity studies on the SAT and ACT to determine whether the tests are accurate indicators of success, and if they still have a high usefulness in admissions procedures.

If there is no substantial data that proves these test scores are a necessity, the commission is pushing for colleges to make the tests optional for admission.

"Many colleges are not doing frequent validity studies to see if these test scores are doing an accurate and fair job at predicting success," said Robert Schaeffer, public education director for the National Center for Fair and Open Testing. "The sole scientific claim of these tests is their capacity to predict first-year college GPA. So, you should be doing studies to see if it does."

The concern that the SAT and ACT have deviated from their original intention is a lead argument for SAT-optional supporters.

"People began thinking the SAT measured how you took the SAT, not on high school curriculum," Schaeffer said. "Test score requirements exclude from consideration talented students who just don't test well."

Melissa Taylor, assistant director of admission services at Baylor, said the tests are still an effective instrument for the admissions office.

"Probably 98 percent of students' parents say they aren't good at standardized testing, but they're still here and still succeeding," she said. "As far as the strength of the students coming to our university, we can see what types of courses we should offer, what types of professors we need to be bringing in."

For admission at Baylor, a student's class standing receives as much consideration as the SAT and ACT in admission decisions.

The Baylor application also offers optional enhancement measurements for students to take advantage of, in conjunction with sending in their application and scores.

"The optional letters of recommendation and the two short answer essays give us more of an opportunity to listen to an applicant's voice, and the voices of people who know them well," Taylor said. "But if they don't do these portions, all we have is their application and scores to look at."

Universities who have made standardized testing scores optional report an increase of minority applicants.

"This system of measurement has been tainted by the explosion of test coaching," Schaeffer said. "When students score well on the test, you can't know if it's because they know the material, or because their parents pay thousands of dollars for a private tutor. Relying heavily on these scores closes the door to diversity."

Mostly small liberal arts colleges are making the transition to being SAT-optional in admissions.

Wake Forest University, which announced this summer that the test was no longer a requirement for admissions, is the largest school to make this change.

Dr. Larry Lyon, vice provost for institutional effectiveness, said this effort most likely won't catch on unless bigger schools implement it as well.

"When 99 percent of the top universities in the country haven't gone this route, it would be dangerous for Baylor to do so," he said.

However, since Ivy League schools tend to place more emphasis on interview and other aspects of the application process, they are at less of a danger of misusing standardized testing.

"There is a continuum from relying too heavily on test scores at one end to the other end, where a school doesn't consider you unless you have a certain score," Schaeffer said. "The latter is clearly a misuse of the tests according to the test makers. On that continuum, the way schools like Harvard use the SAT is closer to being test-optional--using it as one modest factor among many."

Before getting rid of SAT or ACT scores, the National Association for College Admission Counseling encourages colleges to find a good medium between the scores and other measurements of success.

"If these tests become optional, they begin to lose comparability across schools," Lyon said. "In and of themselves, they aren't a good measure of college preparedness. The key is to combine them with other things. If they don't become the primary indicator of success, the be all and end all, then they are very useful."

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