UT to reinstate standardized testing, reviving equity debate in college admissions
Editor’s note: The above video shows KXAN News’ top morning headlines for Tuesday, April 29, 2024.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — In early March, the University of Texas released a statement announcing the reinstatement of standardized test scores in admissions for Fall 2025 applicants. The announcement reintroduced the debate on whether standardized tests disproportionately affect marginalized students -- new research shows they do the opposite.
The test-optional policy became normalized in schools across the nation during the COVID-19 pandemic, when access to testing became too dangerous for some students.
Nearly four years later, UT is one of the latest universities to require applicants to submit test scores, joining MIT, Brown University, Yale University, Dartmouth College and others.
The switch to test-optional
There is a long history of debate on whether standardized tests disproportionately affect marginalized student groups, such as students of color or students from low-income families. With scores from the SAT and ACT becoming test-optional for an extended time, many people believed they might stay that way for good.
Addison McKenna, who uses they/them pronouns, is a senior at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy, or LASA. LASA is a public school in Austin known for its rigorous curriculum, prompting McKenna to submit their scores when applying to colleges.
"Even though they say test optional... doesn't really impact anything, I feel like it can," McKenna said. "When I was applying, I thought that if it came down to me and another person, if they submitted their scores, it would probably be an advantage towards them."
McKenna had help when it came to starting the admissions process. They've been working with Breakthrough Central Texas since applying in the sixth grade.
Breakthrough is a nonprofit that helps students who would be the first in their families to attend college navigate secondary education. The nonprofit begins working with students in middle school -- continues assisting them throughout high school with resumes, essays and every other step of the admissions process -- and stays with them until age 24.
Michael Griffith, the executive director of Breakthrough Central Texas, saw many of the nonprofit's students apply to colleges they would not have previously considered because of the test-optional policy. As a result, Griffith saw an increase in applications and acceptances.
"Given the history of the SAT and ACT testing, and how it does privilege those who have the means to go and prepare for them in the many ways that one does, it is an unfair entrance requirement to a lot of young people," Griffith said.
Like many other educators, Griffith supports schools choosing to go test-optional. He sees the testing requirements disproportionately affecting low-income students, students of color and first-generation students.
According to Griffith, students from wealthier backgrounds can pay to take the test as many times as they want and spend thousands of dollars on private tutoring and individual application review. Wealthier students also have access to extracurricular activities that tend to boost their application, such as music lessons and travel sports teams.
The purpose of the ACT and SAT
Over the past few years, college administrations have noticed an influx of 4.0 high school GPAs. They're calling it grade inflation.
Will Ramsdell is the director of Advantage Testing of Austin, a private tutoring and testing preparation service. He believes grade inflation came from a good place -- it just happened to backfire.
"I think grade inflation happened out of the goodwill and care for students that teachers have," Ramsdell said. "It felt really unfair to give kids bad scores in their classes when they were so hampered by everything that was happening."
Prior to offering students the choice to submit scores, UT used a combination of test scores and high school GPA to determine if a student should receive admittance. UT President Jay Hartzell said the university used standardized testing to predict whether a student would succeed or not at the school, and determine who had the most academic potential.
Administrators from MIT voiced the same reasoning, claiming that standardized tests were the best way to accurately predict student success.
As the pandemic continued, grade inflation rose, resulting in an abundance of 4.0 GPAs, making it harder for admission offices to decipher applications. President Hartzell cited this as one of the deciding factors in UT's recent announcement.
"With an abundance of high school GPAs surrounding 4.0, especially among our auto-admits, an SAT or ACT score is a proven differentiator that is in each student’s and the university’s best interest," Hartzell said.
Opportunity Insights, a nonprofit made up of a team of researchers and policy analysts based at Harvard University, published data in January supporting this claim.
The group found that "high school GPA does little to predict academic success in college" and that higher ACT/SAT scores were associated with higher college GPAs, but higher high school GPAs were not.
How do the tests really affect marginalized students?
While data from Opportunity Insights proves inequality in secondary education exists, research done by the National Library of Medicine shows that disparity can actually be reduced when students are required to submit standardized test scores. Additionally, when students submit their scores along with their application, colleges like MIT take into consideration the applicant's school district ranking, average GPA, crime statistics of where they live and more.
"We don't care as much about what a student has done as what they have done relative to what might have been expected, given their resources," said MIT Dean of Admissions Stu Schmill.
Ramsdell agrees with academics like Schmill that the SAT and ACT are working properly when they pick up racial and economic disparities. He's a strong advocate for bringing back standardized testing, and he said the reason is counterintuitive to what you might think.
He explained that having the option to not submit test scores has created a "ratcheting" process. Every year, the average scores for universities continue to increase, because the only students submitting scores are ones who meet or are above the school's median, making the scores mean less.
Scores meaning less is a problem to Ramsdell. Without a national standardized test measuring college readiness, students from marginalized groups slip through the cracks, and there's no one to catch it.
"Some of these underprivileged kids may not even realize that their scores are good enough to help them," Ramsdell said.
However, schools like UT and MIT said they use a holistic admissions approach and that decisions are not solely based on test scores.
"The essential piece here is that they're not comparing head to head a student from a wealthy zip code who has access to wonderful tutoring and all these other things and doesn't have to hold down a job because they're not a primary income earner for their household," Ramsdell said.
The reality of standardized testing today
David Leonhardt, a long-time higher education reporter for The New York Times, said, "The existence of racial and economic gaps in SAT and ACT scores doesn't prove that the tests are biased. After all, most measures of life in America — on income, life expectancy, homeownership and more — show gaps."
To put it simply, standardized tests reflect the major inequities society deals with today.
For students like McKenna, Breakthrough fills those gaps Leonhardt discusses. After working one-on-one with a tutor provided through a collaboration between Breakthrough and Advantage Testing, McKenna got an almost perfect ACT score and shared they received 11 acceptances and $1.5 million in scholarships.
Without Breakthrough and help from Advantage Testing, McKenna said they would have probably accepted that college wasn't for them.
"Will's support has been tremendous. He helped me with essays, helped me figure out schools that would be a good fit, because I was like, I don't know what's a reach or anything anymore," McKenna said.