Standardized Testing Policy | Undergraduate Admissions (2024)

FAQs

Standardized Testing Policy | Undergraduate Admissions? ›

The CSU Board of Trustees voted in favor to amend Title 5 to discontinue standardized test scores in undergraduate admission at its March 2022 meeting. Title 5 is the part of the California Code of Regulations which governs the California State University.

Most colleges—even if they're test optional—consider standardized test scores for admission decisions, course placement, financial aid offers, and other purposes. Sometimes submitting scores is required and sometimes it's optional. Where required, you only need to submit scores from one test.

Test-Optional for Applicants Meeting Certain Criteria: Some colleges require SAT or ACT scores for the majority of applicants but are test-optional for applicants who meet specific standards. For instance, achieving a certain GPA or demonstrating an outstanding academic accomplishment.

The ACT test covers four academic skill areas: English, mathematics, reading, and scientific reasoning. It also offers an optional direct writing test. It is accepted by all four-year colleges and universities in the United States as well as more than 225 universities outside of the U.S. ACT, Inc.

Under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, public school students must take state standardized tests in mathematics and English language arts annually in grades three through eight and once during high school.

Many consider the tests to be unfair because there are score gaps by race and class. Average scores for modest-income, Black and Hispanic students are lower than those for white, Asian and upper-income students. The tests' critics worry that reinstating test requirements will reduce diversity.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, many colleges and universities dropped the SAT/ACT and became test optional or test free. Some schools have kept these changes in place, while others have shifted back toward requiring standardized testing.

However, in terms of colleges penalizing applicants for not submitting scores, no. They don't do that. Applying test-optional doesn't hurt your chances if you've got an outstanding application and are as strong or stronger than the other applicants.

In response to testing disruptions at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, many colleges implemented test-optional admission policies. Some said the change – which lets applicants decide whether to submit their SAT or ACT scores as part of their application – was only temporary.

The move was a victory for critics of standardized tests, who have long argued that requiring scores disadvantages historically marginalized racial and socioeconomic groups in the admissions process.

What are the cons of standardized testing? ›

Standardized tests scores are not predictors of future success. At best, Standardized tests can only evaluate rote knowledge of math, science, and English. The tests do not evaluate creativity, problem solving, critical thinking, artistic ability, or other knowledge areas that cannot be judged…

But several highly selective schools have recently reinstated requirements and a comparison of their announcements shows that their reasons are surprisingly similar. The University of Texas at Austin joined MIT, Dartmouth, Yale and Brown in requiring standardized testing as part of its first-year application process.

Standardized tests measure little of what parents and others want children to learn and experience in schools. They do not measure creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, leadership or empathy. Many schools narrow their focus to the tested subjects of math and reading. Other important subjects are sidelined.

More than 80% of U.S. four-year colleges and universities will not require applicants for fall 2025 admissions to submit ACT/SAT scores according to a new tally by FairTest, the National Center for Fair & Open Testing.

Tests by state

Nebraska is the only state that does not have a standardized test. However "LEP (Limited English Proficiency) students may be allowed to use a word translation finder style dictionary or word-to-word dictionary from first language to English language.

First, students with higher SAT and ACT scores also tend to achieve higher college GPAs. Second, high school GPAs are poor predictors of college GPAs. Lastly, students with similar standardized test scores also have similar college GPAs, even if they come from different socioeconomic backgrounds.

Well, yes and no. It depends on your goals. If your desired outcome is for your child simply to attend college, then your child is on the right track. If, however, you have more ambitious goals for your child, such as an elite college or a UC school, you'll need to give further consideration to the STAR test results.

It drives students and teachers away from learning, and at times from school. It narrows, distorts, weakens and impoverishes the curriculum while fostering forms of instruction that fail to engage students or support high-quality learning.

Some students choose to take both the ACT and SAT – while others find they are more comfortable with one test or the other based on their learning styles and preferences. Either way you choose, know that colleges and universities have no specific test preference.