Standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT are not fortune-telling devices. We know this. Standardized tests do an okay job, at best, measuring what a student can remember in a given moment under a particular set of testing conditions. However, the ability of the SAT or ACT to measure academic potential is very much in question. We know that these tests do not show what students are capable of achieving when they have access to the time and resources necessary to succeed.
We know all of this because of the data the tests themselves, particularly the SAT, provide, and the way that the College Board positions the test publicly — and we’ve known it for a long time.
The 1999 PBS Frontline documentary “Secrets of the SAT” illuminated the connections between privilege and success on the SAT, and challenged the idea that the SAT is good at measuring intelligence or aptitude. At the time, they reported the College Board as advising that the best way to prepare for the SAT is to take a rigorous course load and to read a lot. That is pretty much the same advice students receive today. Study hard, and you’ll do well. The problem is, this directive assumes that all students have access to the same, or at least similarly rigorous, high-level courses. High schools across the United States struggle to offer, or simply don’t offer, AP and Honors level courses. When these courses are available in lower-income school districts, the classes are often overcrowded, undercutting the value of the experience.
The standardized test prep industry would not exist if studying hard in school was enough to stand out. SAT and ACT prep can provide students who don’t have access to high-level courses an opportunity to advance beyond their course limitations — but they have to be able to afford it first. While the proliferation of online study materials has leveled the playing field a bit, the best way to prepare for standardized tests is often to employ a personal or small-group tutor who is a test specialist.
Through the help of a test specialist and test prep courses, mediocre students can become ace test-takers. Simultaneously, hardworking students who perform well despite the many hurdles lined up in front of them in lower-income schools often performing poorly on standardized tests because they couldn’t access the personalized guidance that tutoring provides. They don’t learn how to play the game, so they don’t perform well in a strange and unrealistic testing environment that is not reflective of anything even remotely akin to the real world.
We do not provide test prep services, but we have advised our clients to seek them out. As long as SAT and ACT scores are critical factors in student’s applications, we will be encouraging our clients to study and prepare to perform as well as they are capable of. We wish we didn’t have to do this. We wish our students could spend the time and money they are currently investing in test prep exploring a passion or pursuing an internship — but the SAT and ACT tests exist, and many top schools still require them.
That is, until now.
The Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic has pushed many top-tier universities to suspend their test requirements and to go test-optional for at least the 2020-2021 college application season. We believe that every college in the United States needs to follow their lead.
If you have already taken the SAT or ACT and are happy with your scores, we understand why submitting them feels like an important, or even imperative, piece of your applications. However, we do not believe that students who are already stressed should have to sit down to take a test that is a better measure of privilege than it is one of intelligence, and that isn’t even a good filter in the application process.
High SAT and ACT scores do not guarantee that students can cash in on their hard work for a top spot, so if a student from a low-resource background manages to achieve a killer score, it may not be making a difference.
In a March 2019 piece for the Washington Post, Georgetown research professor and Director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, Anthony P. Carnevale, wrote:
“Our research shows that 25 percent of all students attending colleges in the two highest tiers of selectivity (about 200 of the most elite colleges in America) have SAT scores that are well below the average test scores of entrants to those institutions. If admissions were based on test scores alone, more than 40 percent of the white students already enrolled in such institutions would have to leave.”
Some of the students identified in Carnevale’s 25% were accepted because they were athletes going through the recruitment process — so they did, ostensibly, earn their spot. Others are students who were accepted for reasons other than the ability to sit still for a few hours and answer a litany of plodding questions in number 2 pencil. We love those students and are glad that their test scores didn’t get in the way of their acceptance! However, Carnevale reports that “two-thirds of [the 25% of all students] come from families in the top quarter of all family income. They are the sons and daughters of those who already have everything.”
As if there was still any question as to whether the SAT is a useful tool in college admissions, Carnevale wrote:
“Of all students who score above average on the SAT or ACT, 31 percent of white students go to a selective college, but only 19 percent of the black and Latino students with the same scores enroll at those elite colleges.”
If top scores do not lead to acceptance or enrollment, why are we putting so much emphasis on them, especially at a time when students need to be focused on their health and wellness, not on sitting for a test?
To pressure applicants to submit SAT and ACT scores in a time of extreme stress and dire need among students and their families isn’t just unreasonable, it’s cruel. Students who don’t have a computer at home are falling behind on their regular coursework, let alone test prep. Students who share a bedroom or don’t have a quiet room to work in, or who are required to care for younger siblings, do not have the luxury of the extra study time students of means have access to. Students of all socio-economic backgrounds are anxious, stressed, and many are depressed.
We applaud the schools that have already gone test-optional for the 2020-2021 application season. We also expect these schools to receive more applications than they have previously. This will lead to lower acceptance rates at these institutions, which is what schools are continually striving to accomplish.
Students and schools both benefit from going test-optional, at least for the coming admissions cycle — and we believe it is a moral obligation that they do so.
If you are looking for support and guidance through the college application process, send us an email. We specialize in streamlining college admissions, even in stressful times.