Fairtest reports that George Washington University has grown the long list of universities that no longer require students to take the SAT or ACT for admission. These universities recognize that students’ grade-point-average over four years is more predictive of college success than any standardized test.
GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY GOES TEST-OPTIONAL;
MOVEMENT OF SCHOOLS TO DE-EMPHASIZE ACT/SAT ACCELERATES
WITH 40 DROPPING ACT/SAT REQUIREMENTS IN PAST TWO YEARS
Today’s announcement by George Washington University that it will no longer require most applicants to submit ACT or SAT test scores is the latest example of a surge of schools dropping admissions testing requirements. According to the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest), 40 colleges and universities have adopted test-optional policies since spring 2013.
Like George Washington, many of the institutions going test-optional in the past two years are among the most competitive in the U.S. The list includes Beloit, Brandeis, Bryn Mawr, Drake, Hood, Kalamazoo, Sienna and Wesleyan. A growing number of public universities, such as Eastern Connecticut, Monmouth State, Old Dominion, Plymouth State, Rowan, Temple, and Virginia Commonwealth, have also eliminated ACT or SAT score requirements for all or many applicants
FairTest Public Education Director Bob Schaeffer explained, “The test-optional surge recognizes that no test—not the SAT, old or new, nor the ACT – is needed for high-quality admissions. Many independent studies and practical experiences have shown that test-optional admission enhances both academic excellence and diversity.”
FairTest’s list of ACT/SAT-optional schools (at http://www.fairtest.org/university/optional) now includes more than 180 schools ranked in the top tiers of their respective categories. More than one-third of top-ranked national liberal arts colleges have test-optional policies.
– regular updates for FairTest’s chronology of test-optional adoptions and list of top-tier schools with test-optional or test-flexible policies are online at http://www.fairtest.org/university/optional
Diane Ravitch's blog 
How long until the reformers take this as an affront to their long term business plan and make huge donations to these schools with just one caveat… That or they promise to make big donations to institutions that hire individuals sympathetic to their cause?
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Serious question on the ACT for the edu-experts. My eldest son attended an ordinary public high school and as you all know high schools vary- some are great and others are not and most are probably somewhere in the middle- states vary (funding, commitment to education, state law) and of course schools vary. I’d put his at “average, but A for effort” 🙂
So he’s pretty bright and he wanted to go away to school and he applied at some selective colleges because he did quite well on the ACT. He got into one of the schools and it was great for him and probably a really profound benefit, all things considered. He just loved it there.
Would he have been been at a disadvantage without that national number, competing against students from great public high schools with lots of funding and community support- whatever it is that you view a “great high school” to be?
What would they use to make a fair national comparison?
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If the high school your son attended did not typically have graduates admitted to colleges as selective as the one at which he was ultimately accepted, then yes, I think it is safe to say that at the very least his high ACT score sent a reassuring signal to the admissions department, and at some schools it would have been the deciding factor.
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Thank you. I think it would be one area where grades would not be enough because we would be talking about how difficult/comprehensive the most advanced courses available to that person in that particular school were. All “A’s” are not the same.
We actually sent him to a community college for a math course because he had completed all the math courses available to him. In Ohio now he could do that free – it’s open to everyone. They’ll get college credit while in high school (he didn’t get credit- he just took the course and the instructor gave him a grade).
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Chiara, every institution is different and only an admissions officer could know.
Highly selective institutions have a intensive admissions process that truly looks at multiple sources of information to make a decision. The student’s transcript, activities, personal statement, and letters of recommendation are very important. The school profile will be reviewed and the past track record of students, if any, from the high school will provide some context. The interview has some weight, especially if it is with an admissions officer.
I feel the ACT or SAT is increasingly more of a tie-breaker than a major contributing factor in highly selective admissions, but again it varies by institution.
For the student and the family, this is a decision about an individual. For the institution, it is about constructing a class. Highly selective colleges and universities receive numerous applications from well known public and private high schools, so they don’t have a hard time finding students to admit from those communities. A student from an “ordinary” school will receive serious consideration if their history, statement, and recommendations convey that they are bright, hard-working, and will bring something distinctive to the class.
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Thanks. I read a piece once on how the SAT was supposed to work and it was intended to increase equity- an unbiased measure to “level the playing field” so if one had the high score one could use that to mitigate any admission detriment of attending a less than stellar high school. That makes sense to me because I think I saw that happen with this one (now grown) child.
I suppose they could come up with something else, but for a big state school that would involve a lot of individual analysis.
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The bigger state schools, you’re in Big Ten country like me I think, rely more heavily on GPA and ACT/SAT than smaller highly selective schools in their admissions process.
And you are right, that was part of the original intent of the SAT. Today, there are other ways for admissions committees to gather information in addition to standardized tests.
Exhausting your high school’s catalog of math courses and taking a math course at a community college probably carried more weight than his ACT math score.
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“Highly selective” is total drivel. These schools LIMIT enrollment like medical schools, in order to keep the “riff-raff” out. It has no bearing on the “rigor” of the schools or much of anything else.
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Take that David Coleman! And your irrelevant College Board! And all the reformsters who trash teachers, because what those colleges are saying is that the professional judgement of teachers when they grade their students is the best predictor of college success, not standardized tests, and research bears this out!
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“. . . the professional judgement of teachers when they grade their students. . . ”
That fundamental misconception of “grading” students is based on a false epistemology-theory of knowledge, that the teaching and learning process can be “measured” and/or assessed through categorical distinctions with precise and meaningful cut points/delimitations is the basis for many harms and injustices foisted upon the most innocent of society, the children/students.
Almost all here declaim and denounce the “grading” of schools as a false evaluation but still cling onto the concept of “GRADING” STUDENTS as if it is natural and normal. It’s not! It is an ABHORRENT, OUTDATED and DESTRUCTIVE MALPRACTICE that should have been put to rest a long time ago.
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Great news. GW is a true heavyweight. And how timely. Just today I was reading about the differences between the old and new SAT/PSAT/PSAT10/PSAT 8–or in College Board wording: their “suite” of assessments. Parents, teachers, and students would be shocked if they truly knew how inane the new SAT (and its entourage) is. It is quite different from the old test. Parents, especially, may have no knowledge of this. Did GW base their decision on the reworking of the SAT to align with CCSS? Diane, it would be a great service for teachers and parents alike for an authority figure to compare and contrast the tests and make this information public. For example, compare the SAT to the ACT, which still tests grammar and style in English, and will tell you the percentages of each kind of question for each section: reading, English, math, and science. The new SAT does not do this. The ACT is not perfect either, but goodness, the SAT is from a parallel universe. Although I live on the East coast where the SAT rules, I will be encouraging any junior I know to take the ACT if a test is required for admission to a college of their choice. If they pick colleges that do not require these tests, even better. And look for this developing controversy: CB minions are telling teachers that AP courses are “outside” the common core and don’t need to adhere to those standards. Tell that to a Danielson-crazed administrator.
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The AP concept is garbage as it is. I saw nothing in my AP teacher training that suggested that it was anything more than I taught in my upper level Spanish Classes.
Give it a fancy name-AP and sell the crap out of it. I had no need to because we were already doing what we should have been doing to begin with.
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How’s retirement, Duane?
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Thanks for asking FLERP!!
Actually right now it’s pretty much still the same as any normal summer. I’m sure I’ll notice it a little more in a couple of weeks when school starts. I think that is when it will hit me.
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If I were retired, I’d try to pick up a new sport, or get back to an old one. I have an 8-year-old, and watching him always drives it home that I can’t do the things he can do, like throw a ball against a wall for hours on end. Plus time’s ticking and my ankles are going fast.
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Duane, sitting on a lawn chair outside the high school smiling with a thermos of coffee of the first day all teachers return is a fine retirement activity.
Do you have any interest in mentoring new world language teachers? There is a need out there and it easy to shift from retirement to rehirement.
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“Do you have any interest in mentoring new world language teachers?
Stiles, I’m not sure what that would be. Do you have more information, a site etc. . . .
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Duane, in Wisconsin public school districts are required to provide mentor/induction support to new teachers in the profession. There are different approaches to how mentoring can be provided and for many elements of teaching strong general experience and coaching skills is enough. However for more specialized areas, I feel there is a real benefit to having a mentor with background teaching the subject. I also have a bias toward retired mentor coaches because they are in a position to be truly independent and a resource specifically to the new teacher as opposed to a mid-career person who might be subject to GAGA influence from me or a principal.
I know ACTFL has its own mentoring program within the world language education community. Maybe the state FL/WL associations do too.
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http://www.actfl.org/professional-development/career-resources/mentoring-program/actfl-mentoring-program-guidelines
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Thanks for the info. In MO it’s the districts that are in charge of mentoring, usually using someone within a building. I offered many times but needless to say I was never “chosen”. I will check out the site, though!
Again thanks!
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The SAT/ACTs weren’t designed as “predictors” of anything. All they told admissions officers was how these applicants prepared for college.
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I would warrant that this shift will not only cause universities to hold the GPA as consideration but also the well-roundedness and individual uniqueness of each student.
This could domino into students stacking their resumes with activities rich in the arts and sciences, not just athletics or charity volunteering. Fingers crossed.
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It’s a drop in the bucket at this time BUT it affects a larger group of high schools that traditionally pipelines students to GWU. The teachers’ orientation will be to teach the content that prepares them for colleges of that caliber [as well as all others] rather than preparing them for a Checkpoint Charlie-like standardized test (the scenario’s middleman) that allows them to cross the border into the land of uni. The level of excellence in the lesson planning and textbook selection in the liberated high schools will allow for a newfound breadth and depth in the curriculum.
I would love to see examples and case studies from the high schools that strategically choose to empower their teachers in educating in this new wave of thinking.
Please document and share details if this will be happening at your high school that matriculates to George Washington or other Universities that have dropped the requirement…we need more teacher-journalists who can share these types of stories.
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
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