For years, students, parents, and educators have grappled with the question of what is the purpose of standardized tests such as the SAT or ACT. These tests are difficult, time-consuming, and stressful. They don’t seem to accurately reflect what students learn in school. They focus more on problem solving and analytical reading than expression of knowledge. This has lead some groups, such as the National Center for Fair & Open Testing have called for the reform of standardized testing, if not the elimination of the use of certain tests. Despite the efforts of such organizations, most colleges still accept and many still require students to submit standardized test scores.
Why Have Standardized Testing At All?
This leads to an important question: why do colleges still utilize SAT and ACT results in college admissions and scholarship award decisions? Most college admissions officers, when asked, will tell you that a student’s grades and personal narrative are far more important factors than standardized test scores. Admissions officers still find the test scores to be a useful metric in evaluating a candidate’s credentials.
The United States is one of only a few countries on Earth that does not have a single tiered education system and concrete national education and graduation standards. Unlike most other countries, the United States leaves the management of education to the various states and territories, meaning that rather than one unique education system in this country, there are well over 50 different education systems, one for each state, one of each US territory, and even one run by the US military for the families of US servicepeople serving in places like Germany and South Korea.
Pros of Standardized Testing
This lack of standardization across education presents a problem to college admissions officers. Since every state has a different education system, it may be difficult to accurately compare the grades that one student earned with the grades another student earned. This is especially true since the quality of the different education systems varies noticeably. The US Department of Education, nonprofit organizations, for-profit education companies, and news sources, each rank the quality of the different states’ education systems each year based on a number of factors, including graduation rates, enrollment and attendance, teacher salary, school budgets, student outcomes, and student safety.
This means that college admissions officers can choose from a variety of sources to determine the relative quality of a particular state’s education system. This leads to a series of questions. Did a student who earned an A in honors pre-Calculus in a typical school in a lower ranked state earn the same grade as a student who earned an A in honors pre-Calculus in a typical school in a higher ranked state? Did those two students learn from equally qualified teachers? Did their classes progress at the same pace? Are their grades equivalent?
Standardized testing answers these questions. If both of these hypothetical students took the SAT or ACT, admissions officers can add that date point to their deliberations. Remember, both of these hypothetical students earned an A in honors pre-Calculus, but how did they individually perform on the SAT or ACT math section? Now, the standardized testing results are being used to provide context for factors that are far more accurate and reliable. The states with better school systems tend to have higher average SAT and ACT results.
Cons of Standardized Testing
Unfortunately, academic skill is not the sole determining factor in performance on standardized tests. In fact, the largest factor in success on the SAT seems to be familial wealth. A comprehensive study published in the last decade found that students who hailed from families in the highest tax brackets scored an average of hundreds of points higher on the sAT than families from the lowest tax brackets. Additionally, this gap was significantly higher within historically underserved social and ethnic groups such as Black American students, meaning that Black students from wealthy families still saw much higher results on the SAT than their less economically disadvantaged peers.
While there may be better tools for admissions officers to utilize in making decisions, so far, we are stuck dealing with standardized testing. Luckily, there are resources available for families of limited financial means to start the process of making up the gap in preparation caused by the gamp in economic resources. Free tools such as Khan Academy can be incredibly useful for underserved and disadvantaged students, but they require a great deal of self-motivation on the part of the student. At Livius, we are always looking to partner with public school districts, charter schools, and local nonprofits focused on education resources for underserved and disadvantaged communities. In this way, we can bring the same expertise, high quality curriculum, and brilliant instructors who work with high performing students in well-resourced public and private schools to students who would not normally have access to high quality tutoring services.