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EDITORIAL: Getting Rid of the SAT

According to a recent Capital News Service story, Salisbury University on Maryland’s Eastern Shore may soon permanently discard the standardized test admission requirement for well-qualified applicants. In recent years, a number of colleges and universities, some of them elite, have been re-examining the role of aptitude tests in their selection process.

Some now believe that grade-point average, class standing and extracurricular activities are better predictors of success in college than scores on standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT.

According to Martha Allman, director of admissions at North Carolina’s Wake Forest University, “The research is becoming pretty undeniable that (a standardized test) isn’t a good prediction of academic success.”

Institutions of higher learning want, of course, to enroll the brightest students they can attract, but a student’s potential for success at college is the focus of the admissions process.

Here is Maryland, McDaniel, Washington and Goucher colleges have already marginalized the importance of standardized test scores. They can be submitted, but are no longer a general requirement for admission.

Many believe that SAT tests are racially, culturally and/or ethnically biased. Doing away with that requirement, they argue, attracts a more diverse pool of applicants.

Institutions such as Salisbury, McDaniel and Washington are no longer requiring test scores from well-qualified students — those with a good class standing and high grade-point average. Others, such as Goucher, have done away with the requirement for all students, though scores are necessary for students seeking merit scholarship consideration.

Salisbury is running a five-year trial of the test-optional policy for high achieving applicants, and Ellen Neufelt, vice president of student affairs at Salisbury, said so far it has not been an issue. According to a assessment by the school’s board of regents, test-submitting and non-test-submitting student had similar GPAs and retention rates over two years.

The debate about the value of standardized test scores isn’t cut and dried, of course. Many continue to believe that these scores provide indisputable indications about the ability and achievement of students, indicators that class rankings and GPAs may not, due to the wide academic disparity among high schools around the nation. Others said that while good test scores may say something about applicants’ knowledge and intelligence, the dedication and hard work required to achieve a high GPA and rank among peers is a more accurate reflection of future success on a college campus.

In the end, making admission tests optional for students may be the most sensible policy for them and the institutions to which they apply. While they may not be the single, best indicator or a student’s potential to succeed, they can provide valuable information. And in the end, of course, colleges may assign whatever degree of importance they choose to the test scores.

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