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Why Yale is dropping its test-optional admission policy
The News
Yale University on Thursday said it was ending its test-optional policy, becoming the second Ivy League school after Dartmouth to drop a pandemic-era admission adjustment.
In a statement, university officials branded the change as “test-flexible,” meaning students can opt to submit Advance Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) test scores in lieu of SAT and ACT scores, the two most common standardized tests used for university admissions in the United States.
Yale said that their research determined standardized testing ultimately helps determine college readiness despite public outcry in recent years that has blamed standardized tests for fueling educational inequality in the country. And while many schools have decided to retain their test-optional policies, ACT and SATs remain ingrained in the American educational system.
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Testing critics say SATs fuel inequality, but some data suggests otherwise
Critics of standardized testing have long claimed that tests like the SAT and ACT are responsible for admission inequality because students from wealthier families can pay for tutoring to boost scores. But as the country experiences “grade inflation” — high schools making it easier for students to graduate with As — newer research suggests that standardized testing, when used as one of multiple factors for admissions, could actually be a predictor of success at elite universities, particularly for students from marginalized racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. Reintroducing standardized testing could also address a different frustration that many Americans have with college admissions at elite universities: that “it has become too opaque and unconnected to merit,” The New York Times’ David Leonhardt argued.
SAT and ACT are embedded in public policy
As more colleges retain their pandemic-era test-optional policies, the country is seeing a significant decline in students who take the SAT and ACT. But these tests are not becoming irrelevant: testing companies are “taking the demand for their tests out of the hands of individual students and colleges and embedding it into public policy,” Vox reported in 2022. The 2002 No Child Left Behind Act mandated schools to incorporate some form of standardized testing, and the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act made it possible for schools to use the ACT and SAT in lieu of state standardized tests. According to Vox, there are 14 states where more than 90% of high schoolers take the ACT, and another 10 states where students take the SAT to meet federal requirements. And instead of offering the test on weekends, more high schools are incorporating testing days during the school week to ensure all students take it.
College Board pushes tests that millions of marginalized students are failing
The College Board — the non-profit organization that administers both the SAT and Advance Placement (AP) courses — has heavily promoted AP courses as a way to narrow the educational inequality gap between high-income and low-income and minority students. The tests — often free for students, and paid for by school districts — have helped the College Board rake in around $90 million in testing fees for 2023, The New York Times reported last year. But about 60% of low-income students are scoring too low for college credit, a statistic that hasn’t changed for the last 20 years. AP is “crucial to the College Board’s future” as fewer students electively take the SAT, but experts told The Times that the curriculum is more like a marketing campaign that doesn’t really benefit students, pointing to studies that show AP tests scores had little impact on determining success in college courses. The College Board has also faced criticism for improperly storing and using students’ personal data, with the organization this year agreeing to pay New York State $750,000 in damages.
