Dramatic Challenge to SAT and ACT

This from Inside Higher Ed:

Calling on colleges to “take back the conversation,” a special panel convened by the National Association for College Admission Counseling will this week encourage colleges to consider dropping the SAT or ACT as admissions requirements.

The panel, in a report to be formally released this week, calls on all colleges to consider more systematically whether they really need testing to admit their students. If there is not clear evidence of the need for testing, the commission urges the colleges to drop the requirement and it expresses the view that there are likely more colleges and universities that could make such a change.

While stressing that there is not a “one-size-fits-all” approach to admissions and testing, and not ruling out that testing may be needed at some institutions, the commission generally takes a very critical look at testing — in a significant shift from past NACAC statements. A 1995 statement from the association, while cautioning against the use of tests for purposes for which they were not intended, said that “when used properly ... tests have the potential of helping admission professionals make sound admissions decisions and of helping students choose where to apply and enroll.”

This year’s NACAC commission — led by William Fitzsimmons, dean of admission and financial aid at Harvard University — uses very different language. It talks about how the discussion of standardized testing has come to be “dominated by the media, commercial interests, and organizations outside of the college admission office.” In addition, the panel cites research suggesting that colleges have been placing more emphasis on testing despite evidence that they should be moving in the opposite direction. Generally, the commission supports the position that high school grades in pre-college courses are the best way to predict college success — and that is the tool most relied upon by colleges that have ended testing requirements...