The article provides a debate on whether universities should make standardized tests, such as Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and American College Testing (ACT), as optional. Jack Buckley, president of the testing company Imbellus Inc. claims that test scores should be in consideration for admission, while Dominique Baker of Southern Methodist University and Kelly Rosinger of Penn State College of Education argues that test option policies can improve equity in university admissions. Buckley advocates that standardized test scores are necessary for the reason that they serve as a partial control for grade inflation in all the universities in the United States. Baker and Rosinger respond that test scores do not measure human intelligence and aptitude. These tests can only indicate students’ ability to master the school content, which cannot be recognized as a crucial skill. Moreover, they claim that tests are biased, seeing that some students have much greater opportunities, for example, private tutors, to obtain high scores as opposed to students from below-average income families. They also suggest that test-optional policies make the whole system fairer, reduce inequality, and diversify campuses. On the contrary, Buckley provides information that there is little support for advocating that optional tests increase campus diversity. He also points out that liberal-art colleges that implemented test-optional policies for a long time do not demonstrate any changes as compared to other universities. He also points out that liberal arts colleges, which have adopted an optional testing policy for a long time, show no change compared to other universities. This fact allows us to consider the system of standardized tests as having little effect on the overall statistics.
Work Cited
Buckley, Jack, Baker, Domonique, and Rosinger, Kelly “Should State Universities Downplay the SAT?” Education Next. 2020, Web.