Standardized testing: help or hindrance? What you need to know about changes to college admissions testing

University Business, Dec, 2004 by Howard Greene, Matthew Greene

Beginning this winter, the two major testing programs utilized in college admissions, the SAT and the ACT, will undergo significant revisions. Families are perplexed by these changes, and how to plan their testing strategy to meet the requirements of colleges in which they are interested. They are very concerned about what those requirements are. IHEs should take this opportunity to get to know the new tests, to help enrollment personnel to understand them so that they can better assist applicants, and to consider modifying their institutional test requirements in response to recent research and examples established by a number of selective colleges and universities.

WHAT ARE THE CHANGES?

Change is nothing new to the standardized testing landscape, but the upcoming shifts are the most significant in this generation, and are arguably more important than the "recentering" of the SAT in 1995. More students are college bound than ever before in America, and more are taking the SAT, the ACT, or both in order to qualify for admission. About 1.4 million students take the SAT, and 1.2 million the ACT, out of an annual high school graduating class of over 3 million nationally. The SAT is undergoing the bigger changes of the two major tests. Long more of a "reasoning" than a substantive, curriculum-based test, which was the ACT's identity, the SAT will become more like the ACT and more focused on core elements of a stronger college preparatory high school program. The ACT will add an optional Writing section, which many selective public and private IHEs will make mandatory. The New SAT will also add a Writing section, which in this case will not be optional The old Verbal section of the SAT I will be renamed Critical Reading. The Math section will drop quantitative comparisons and add content from third-year high school math, or Algebra II. The Critical Reading section will eliminate analogy questions and substitute short reading passages. The Writing section will look like the current SAT II Writing Subject Test, containing multiple choice questions on grammar and usage as well as a student essay written in response to a prompt.

In short, the New SAT, and the ACT with Writing, will put more emphasis on students' writing and reading skills. The old "perfect 1600" SAT I score will become the "perfect 2400" and admissions officers will have the opportunity to view scanned versions of student essays from the Writing section. Thus, they will be able to compare timed, monitored student essay responses, in predictably terrible handwriting, with more polished essays from admission applications. This is one of the most underreported changes associated with the new test, and could result in significant changes in the way admissions readers evaluate student flies, and the ways in which students prepare them. The SAT II Writing Subject Test will be discontinued after January. The first New SAT will be administered in March, 2005, the first ACT with Writing in February.

HOW ARE COLLEGES REACTING?

The simplest changes are those related to how many SAT II Subject Tests more selective colleges will require in addition to the SAT or ACT. The College Board is maintaining a fist of different colleges' entrance requirements for the high school class of 2006 as they are announced (see Resources), which will give you an idea of what your peers are planning. In most cases, highly selective schools that currently require three SAT II Subject Tests, usually including the Writing, will now require two Subject Tests in addition to the New SAT or ACT with Writing. Some are continuing to require three Subject Tests, or only the ACT with Writing.

The National Center for Fair & Open Testing maintains a list of public and private IHEs that do not require the SAT or ACT for admission, or have more flexible policies that de-emphasize the use of the tests in the admission process. Look for this list to be updated, and examine colleges' web sites to explore what some institutions have already been doing. Some notable examples of alternative approaches to the use of standardized tests in admissions include:

* Bowdoin College and Bates College in Maine, neither of which requires any standardized tests for admission. These highly selective private colleges have eliminated the testing requirement for a long time and have had strong results in doing so. According to a study conducted of Bates' 20-year optional

SAT program, students who did and did not submit SATs had similar levels of academic performance and graduation rates. The college reported a larger and more diverse applicant pool as a result of its policy ("Bates Calls Its SAT-Optional Policy a Boon," Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/15/04).

* Hamilton College (N.Y.), which maintains very flexible standardized testing requirements. For entry in 2005, students must submit either the SAT, the ACT, three SAT II Subjects (Writing, a quantitative test, and one other), three Advanced Placement (AP) tests (an English, a quantitative, and one other), or any combination of the above (to include one verbal/English, one quantitative, and one other). Quantitative tests can include math, chemistry, physics, computer science, or economics. For 2006 entry, Hamilton will require the ACT or three tests (SAT II, New SAT, ACT, AP, International Baccalaureate, TOEFL) in different areas, including an English/Writing/Reading, a quantitative, and one other.