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Current PHP version: 7.3.33(The Conversation) – College admission tests are becoming a thing of the past.
More than 80% of U.S. colleges and universities do not require applicants to take standardized tests – like the SAT or the ACT. That proportion of institutions with test-optional policies has more than doubled since the spring of 2020.
And for the fall of 2023, some 85 institutions won’t even consider standardized test scores when reviewing applications. That includes the entire University of California system.
Currently, only 4% of colleges that use the Common Application system require a standardized test such as the SAT or the ACT for admission.
Even before the pandemic, more than 1,000 colleges and universities had either test-optional or so-called “test-blind” policies. But as the pandemic unfolded, more than 600 additional institutions followed suit.
At the time, many college officials noted that health concerns and other logistics associated with test-taking made them want to reduce student stress and risk. Concerns about racial equity also factored into many decisions.
Other institutions are what some call “test-flexible,” allowing applicants to submit test scores from Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exams in place of the SAT or ACT.
Tests under fire
For many years, advocates and scholars have fought against the use of standardized tests, in general, and for college admission.
One critique is simple: Standardized tests aren’t that useful at measuring a student’s potential. Research has repeatedly shown that a student’s high school GPA is a better predictor of college success than standardized test scores such as the SAT or ACT.
But there are deeper issues too, involving race and equity.
The development and use of standardized tests in higher education came out of the eugenics movement. That movement claimed – and then used misleading and manufactured evidence to support the idea – that people of different races had different innate abilities.
“Standardized tests have become the most effective racist weapon ever devised to objectively degrade Black and Brown minds and legally exclude their bodies from prestigious schools,” according to Ibram X. Kendi, director of the Center for Anti-Racist Research at Boston University.
Kendi is not alone in highlighting the historic links between standardized tests and discrimination. Joseph A. Soares, editor of “The Scandal of Standardized Tests: Why We Need to Drop the SAT and ACT,” has documented “[t]he original ugly eugenic racist intention behind the SAT, aimed at excluding Jews from the Ivy League.” He says that goal has now “been realized by biased test-question selection algorithms that systemically discriminate against Blacks.” In his work, Soares draws attention to the practice of evaluating pilot questions and removing from the final test version questions on which Black students did better than white students.
My colleague Joshua Goodman has found that Black and Latino students who take the SAT or the ACT are less likely than white or Asian students to take it a second time. They perform less well, which contributes to disproportionately low representation of college students from low-income and racial minority backgrounds.
Those factors – as well as a lawsuit arguing discrimination based on test performance – were behind the May 2020 decision by the University of California’s Board of Regents to discontinue using SAT and ACT scores in admissions decisions.
Economics of higher education
Colleges and universities tend to seek applicants with good grades and other achievements. They are often seeking a diverse pool from which to build their classes. Colleges that did not require standardized tests in applications for students arriving in fall 2021 “generally received more applicants, better academically qualified applicants, and more diverse pools of applicants.” That’s according to Bob Schaeffer, executive director of FairTest, an advocacy group working to “end the misuses and flaws of testing practices” in higher education and in the K-12 sector.
In addition, birth rates are declining, and the number of 18-year-olds seeking to enter college is decreasing. Many institutions are seeking to make it easier for people to apply to college.
As a result of these factors, I expect to see high school students begin to choose where to apply based at least in part on whether colleges require standardized tests, consider them or ignore them entirely. According to U.S. News & World Report, most of the colleges in the U.S. that still require test scores are located in Southern states, with the highest count in the state of Florida.
The testing business
The test-taking business, including preparatory classes, tutoring and the costs of taking the tests themselves, is a multibillion-dollar industry.
As more institutions reduce their attention to tests, all those businesses feel pressure to reinvent themselves and make their services useful. The College Board, which produces the SAT and other tests, has recently tried to make its flagship test more “student-friendly,” as the organization put it. In January 2022 it released an online SAT that is supposed to be easier for test sites to administer and easier for students to take.
In latest conversations I have had in research into higher education policies, admission directors at selective universities tell me that standardized test scores have become an optional component of a portfolio of activities, awards and other material, that applicants have at their disposal when completing their college applications.
Institutions that have gone test-blind have already decided that the SAT is no longer part of the equation. Others may join them.
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Nearly 41,000 truck drivers tested positive for marijuana in 2022, a 32% increase over 2021, according to a report recently compiled from data in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse.
The new report shows that more than 100,000 truck drivers have tested positive for marijuana since FMCSA opened the Clearinghouse on Jan. 6, 2020. Truck drivers who test positive for marijuana — and other drugs — are prohibited from driving, and must enter a “return-to-work” process and retest to get back behind the wheel.
Cocaine, methamphetamines and amphetamines placed second, third and fourth, respectively, among substances accounting for the most truck driver drug-test failures. The top four drugs accounted for 90% of the 177,376 total positive test results in the three-year history of the Clearinghouse. The agency tests for a total of 14 substances.
“Unfortunately, the number of marijuana positives in the Clearinghouse continues to trend in the wrong direction,” said Dan Horvath, vice president of safety policy for American Trucking Associations. “When you take into account legalization efforts across the country, coupled with misinformation about when marijuana use is legal or not, I’m not at all surprised. The simple fact is not a thing has changed with regard to this DOT-regulated industry — specifically, CDL holders.”
The rising numbers of positive marijuana tests underscore concerns raised earlier this month by the National Transportation Safety Board. In a report, the NTSB recommended that the Department of Transportation add a warning label to cannabis products regarding the potential for driving impairment, make enhancements to state drug-impaired driving laws, and standardize technology testing for the detection of drug use.
As of Jan. 4, 91,000 of the more than 166,000 drivers who failed at least one drug test have yet to enroll in the return-to-work process. Only about 46,000 have completed the process and are eligible to drive again.
Experts have said that the trucking industry needs some sort of field-sobriety test for marijuana, similar to those that judge a driver’s possible alcohol impairment. Currently, law enforcement officers can be trained to recognize impairment, but they do not have a way to confirm marijuana use at roadside.
“We’ve long known about the devastating impact of alcohol-impaired driving, but this [NTSB] report shows that impairment from other drugs, especially cannabis, is a growing concern that needs to be addressed,” said NTSB board member Tom Chapman.
The American Transportation Research Institute has begun research on the breadth and effects of marijuana decriminalization on the trucking industry, according to ATRI Vice President Jeff Short. The results of the research are expected to be made public sometime in 2023, he said.
The stakes for the trucking industry as legalization efforts expand are high; a truck driver caught using marijuana risks losing his or her job, and any use of marijuana is a regulatory violation that can result in significant legal liability for a motor carrier. Plus, the fact that so many drivers are not enrolling in return-to-duty programs could be exacerbating an already critical driver shortage.
Short said the ATRI research will focus on trends including where marijuana is legal, how many people live in states that have legalized it, and the percentage of truck drivers that live in states with legal marijuana.
“We’re going into workforce implications, putting out a survey to safety executives, overall company executives, human resources executives to see what their experiences are with hiring and with maintaining the workforce with testing as well as how many drivers hired in certain states are having difficulties,” he said.
Short added that he cannot currently say why truck drivers in large numbers seem to be choosing not to return to work after flunking their drug tests.
“You can speculate that there is a strong job market, and it may just be easier — instead of going through that [return-to-work] process — to go to a place where testing might not be required or where it’s simply not as strict,” he said.
Short added, “I believe this research will shine a light on that. We are going to be asking trucking executives about that very thing, along with dozens of other questions.”
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College admission tests are becoming a thing of the past.
More than 80% of U.S. colleges and universities do not require applicants to take standardized tests—like the SAT or the ACT. That proportion of institutions with test-optional policies has more than doubled since the spring of 2020.
And for the fall of 2023, some 85 institutions won't even consider standardized test scores when reviewing applications. That includes the entire University of California system.
Currently, only 4% of colleges that use the Common Application system require a standardized test such as the SAT or the ACT for admission.
Even before the pandemic, more than 1,000 colleges and universities had either test-optional or so-called "test-blind" policies. But as the pandemic unfolded, more than 600 additional institutions followed suit.
At the time, many college officials noted that health concerns and other logistics associated with test-taking made them want to reduce student stress and risk. Concerns about racial equity also factored into many decisions.
Other institutions are what some call "test-flexible," allowing applicants to submit test scores from Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exams in place of the SAT or ACT.
Tests under fire
For many years, advocates and scholars have fought against the use of standardized tests, in general, and for college admission.
One critique is simple: Standardized tests aren't that useful at measuring a student's potential. Research has repeatedly shown that a student's high school GPA is a better predictor of college success than standardized test scores such as the SAT or ACT.
But there are deeper issues too, involving race and equity.
The development and use of standardized tests in higher education came out of the eugenics movement. That movement claimed—and then used misleading and manufactured evidence to support the idea—that people of different races had different innate abilities.
"Standardized tests have become the most effective racist weapon ever devised to objectively degrade Black and Brown minds and legally exclude their bodies from prestigious schools," according to Ibram X. Kendi, director of the Center for Anti-Racist Research at Boston University.
Kendi is not alone in highlighting the historic links between standardized tests and discrimination. Joseph A. Soares, editor of "The Scandal of Standardized Tests: Why We Need to Drop the SAT and ACT," has documented "[t]he original ugly eugenic racist intention behind the SAT, aimed at excluding Jews from the Ivy League." He says that goal has now "been realized by biased test-question selection algorithms that systemically discriminate against Blacks." In his work, Soares draws attention to the practice of evaluating pilot questions and removing from the final test version questions on which Black students did better than white students.
My colleague Joshua Goodman has found that Black and Latino students who take the SAT or the ACT are less likely than white or Asian students to take it a second time. They perform less well, which contributes to disproportionately low representation of college students from low-income and racial minority backgrounds.
Those factors—as well as a lawsuit arguing discrimination based on test performance—were behind the May 2020 decision by the University of California's Board of Regents to discontinue using SAT and ACT scores in admissions decisions.
Economics of higher education
Colleges and universities tend to seek applicants with good grades and other achievements. They are often seeking a diverse pool from which to build their classes. Colleges that did not require standardized tests in applications for students arriving in fall 2021 "generally received more applicants, better academically qualified applicants, and more diverse pools of applicants." That's according to Bob Schaeffer, executive director of FairTest, an advocacy group working to "end the misuses and flaws of testing practices" in higher education and in the K-12 sector.
In addition, birth rates are declining, and the number of 18-year-olds seeking to enter college is decreasing. Many institutions are seeking to make it easier for people to apply to college.
As a result of these factors, I expect to see high school students begin to choose where to apply based at least in part on whether colleges require standardized tests, consider them or ignore them entirely. According to U.S. News & World Report, most of the colleges in the U.S. that still require test scores are located in Southern states, with the highest count in the state of Florida.
The testing business
The test-taking business, including preparatory classes, tutoring and the costs of taking the tests themselves, is a multibillion-dollar industry.
As more institutions reduce their attention to tests, all those businesses feel pressure to reinvent themselves and make their services useful. The College Board, which produces the SAT and other tests, has recently tried to make its flagship test more "student-friendly," as the organization put it. In January 2022 it released an online SAT that is supposed to be easier for test sites to administer and easier for students to take.
In latest conversations I have had in research into higher education policies, admission directors at selective universities tell me that standardized test scores have become an optional component of a portfolio of activities, awards and other material, that applicants have at their disposal when completing their college applications.
Institutions that have gone test-blind have already decided that the SAT is no longer part of the equation. Others may join them.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Citation: The SAT and ACT are less important than you might think, says professor (2023, January 26) retrieved 19 February 2023 from https://phys.org/news/2023-01-sat-important-professor.html
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