As high school seniors lament cancellations of milestones like prom and graduation, college-bound juniors speculate over what COVID-19 will mean for their college applications as they prepare for the admissions cycle ahead.
For many juniors, the spring before senior year is the prime time to take the standardized tests required for admission to many colleges and universities. But in March, the College Board and ACT, Inc., postponed or canceled testing dates for the SAT and ACT, the two preeminent standardized entrance exams, between March and May. Students who planned to take the exam in the coming weeks now have limited opportunities.
In response to this disruption, students across the nation are demanding #TestOptionalNOW — urging universities to waive the standardized testing requirements for freshmen applicants in the fall of 2021. This movement is rapidly gaining momentum, with 1,000 individuals signing a petition created by student advocacy organization Student Voice.
Calls from students, educators, researchers, and higher education professionals nationwide have prompted some of the nation’s largest universities, including the University of California (UC) system and all Oregon public universities, to suspend standardized testing requirements.
As an education advocate and California student, I was initially proud of the UC system for its support of prospective students, but upon reading further, this policy still falls short of guaranteeing every California student equitable access to higher education.
In the “Response on Admissions to COVID-19” posted on its website, the UC system states that this change is not “an admissions policy shift but…a temporary accommodation driven by the current extraordinary circumstances.”
While this is a step in the right direction, education reform must be more than reactive. It shouldn’t take a global pandemic for us to make necessary changes. We’ve known for decades that standardized exams are inequitable and inaccurate measures of intelligence and success.
Created by eugenicist Carl Brigham, the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) was one of many tests supposedly designed to measure human intelligence. In reality, it was created by a man who was looking to justify backward tropes about racial hierarchies. Before he created the SAT, Brigham used his initial aptitude exams, administered to army recruits during World War I, to justify views that Northern and Western Europeans were inherently more intelligent than Black people and Southern and Eastern European immigrants.
Ignoring that some of the test takers did not speak English and others hadn’t received adequate educations, Brigham concluded that these scores indicated the innate intelligence of the respective “races.”
Pleased with his discoveries, Brigham adapted the Army Alpha Test into the Scholastic Aptitude Test to serve as an intelligence test for incoming college students. However, the test was initially pretty unpopular. Many institutions preferred to administer their own entrance exams or view their students on a personal basis.
In 1941, nearly 20 years after the test was invented, less than 10% of Americans attended college, and the majority of applicants only applied to one school, so one-on-one admissions reviews were more manageable.
But as soldiers returned from WWII, and G.I. benefits were introduced benefiting mostly white veterans, the number of college attendees increased. More colleges across the nation began using standardized tests to measure student intelligence.
In 1941, just 10,000 students took the SAT; by 1960 it was 800,000; and now more than 2 million students take the exam annually.
As universities’ capacity to meticulously review applications dwindled, they began publishing admitted student profiles, which included average standardized test scores as both a benchmark and seemingly as a way to discourage less “qualified” applicants from applying.
The policy echoed the use of literacy tests — impossible-to-pass, riddle-like exams designed in the Jim Crow era. These tests were superficially meant to assess the intellectual capacity of prospective voters, but instead utilized cultural bias and subjectivity (sound familiar?) to preempt Black suffrage.
Given their racist origins, it is unsurprising that standardized tests continue to predict college readiness along racial and economic lines, with poorer students of color consistently scoring lower than their affluent, white counterparts.
Attempts to minimize the effects of systemic inequality on college admissions have manifested through policies like adversity scoring, meant to equalize testing statistics by providing insight into a student’s potentially disadvantaged background. That’s not nearly enough to create meaningful or lasting education reform.
Just as a single spark can ignite a wildfire, a single moment can create a movement. This is that moment.
I’m calling on all universities not only to stand with students in this instant of collective empathy and adaptation, but also to recognize that students are always more than just statistics.
#TestOptionalALWAYS.
Want more from Teen Vogue? Check this out: Why Some Teachers Are Getting Rid of Grades
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