On Standardized Testing
Standardized collegial testing has become something of an institution. Since the ACT and SAT were implemented, they have grown and changed to the point where they are unrecognizable from their initial forms, but remain constant in their purpose of gauging a student’s academic excellence. Yet they, like many other institutions of ages past, have begun to face an existential threat in recent years, one which was kickstarted by the COVID-19 pandemic but remains evolving.
The pandemic meant that "difficulty accessing test centers", a problem that was already cause for concern, reached its peak as stuffing students from across a region into a classroom for a two-hour long test became logistically and medically complicated.. And while this practical problem began to grow, so too did scholastic concerns regarding the arbitrary measurements imposed by standardized testing --- in all its forms. Especially in an age where holistic factors have become relied upon by admissions, fears of disparity led many to justify prolonging suspension of the test into the future.
There are voices on all sides of the spectrum on this issue. Many see standardized testing as not simply an unnecessary pressure on students, but in fact a signifier of the wealth disparity that has grown in higher education over the past (a past Grytte article offers a compelling case for this phenomenon). But others see the issue as exactly the opposite, instead arguing that such a meritorious system dispels the dangers of holistic factors being exploited by those who have the ability to access or purchase more resources.
In the end, colleges and universities across the nation must decide whether testing should be made optional or not. And increasingly, they have decided that it should not. Seven out of eight schools in the Ivy League have gone back to requiring the SAT or ACT, while various top institutions in the country have, since two years ago, slowly begun to revert to standardized testing. Yet there are still holdouts, institutions whose administrations maintain that equity is offered by test-optional admissions.
No matter what your views are, it seems that the future of American colleges and universities lie in political uncertainty. Likewise, no matter where you stand on standardized admissions, there is no doubt that how colleges judge the academic experiment that was implemented over the pandemic will decide the future answer one gives to the question --- what does fair admissions mean?
