The Patriot Post® · Standardized Testing Is Making a Comeback

Millions of Americans have experienced the stress and hard work of studying for the SAT or ACT, sitting in a room for hours during test day, and waiting for the results to arrive by mail.

In recent years, more people have wondered whether the tests were a necessary part of the college admissions process. But as it turns out, assessing students with these tests is a good measure of knowledge. We know this because we’re emerging from a phase in which schools and universities jumped on the bandwagon of abandoning standardized tests. At first, the excuse was COVID-19, but many schools continue to be test-optional.

As Forbes reported in November 2022, “At least 1,835 U.S. colleges and universities are now employing either ACT/SAT-optional or test-blind/score-free policies, according to an updated list released … by the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest), an organization that is one of the nation’s leading opponents to high-stakes standardized testing.” The list has grown since then.

It all happened so fast and with very little discussion. Long before COVID, the anti-test push grew out of the philosophy of postmodernism, a movement that, in part, lowered standards for all in the name of equality. Within this philosophy came the piggyback movements of critical race theory, anti-racism, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

In fact, FairTest asserts on its website, “What the SAT, and standardized tests generally, seem to pick up better than anything is whether your origins lie in the winning side of the existing birth ‘meritocracy.’”

In other words, because some students may not have had access to quality teachers, schools, or tutors, we should completely dismantle the merit-based system and admit everyone regardless of aptitude.

The philosophy of “equity” has a ripple effect being felt across the nation. Students who enter degree programs without any foundational knowledge end up dropping out with significant college debt or graduating with a degree but entering the workforce wholly unprepared for the job.

That may not be a serious problem in many professions, but you’d probably want your surgeon, airline pilot, lawyer, or accountant to be highly proficient. In addition, this lack of academic rigor further divides people within the workplace.

“Equity segregates workers and students by race and sexuality in affinity groups while naming itself an enemy of racism and discrimination,” journalist David Mastio writes. “It fosters enmity among colleagues and classmates while claiming to build belonging. It claims to fight microaggressions and ends up restricting expression.”

Anti-test proponents conveniently neglect the reality that test admissions scores are only one part of an applicant’s profile. Typically, admissions counselors consider a range of factors, including students’ socioeconomic background, the quality of their high school program, letters of recommendation, the college essay, and, of course, grades.

Abandoning standardized tests like the SAT and ACT gave colleges and universities a chance to evaluate their worth. Now, some schools have decided to start testing applicants again — a decision based on evidence strongly supporting the value of standardized testing.

In fact, one study used “admissions records and first-year college grades from multiple Ivy-Plus colleges for students between 2017 and 2022 to study how standardized test scores and high school grade point average (GPA) relate to academic success in college.” The results: “Even among otherwise similar students with the same high school grades, we find that SAT and ACT scores have substantial predictive power for academic success in college.”

The report’s authors concluded, “Standardized test scores may have more value for admissions processes than previously understood in the literature, especially for highly selective colleges.”

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports: “Colleges nationwide have been updating their coronavirus-era policies on standardized testing, which many dropped when the pandemic shut down in-person testing centers. Some of the most selective schools are declaring they will require tests again — including, across the last two months, Dartmouth College and Yale and Brown universities.”

The movement to end standardized testing is part of a broader agenda of the cultural Marxists to “decolonize” the West, not some innovative and thoughtful approach to reconsider what brings out the best in our students. This takes many forms, including the abolition of meritocracy in American society.

The U.S. has worked hard to ensure equality of opportunity for all, but now a segment of our population wants to replace it with equality of outcome. The good news is that it hasn’t taken long for most of us to see that such an approach doesn’t work. Standardized test scores are not the be-all and end-all, but eliminating all evaluative measures doesn’t serve the interests of students or society.