About That NACAC Report on the SAT
The National Association for College Admission Counseling just released its long-awaited Report of the NACAC Commission on the Use of Standardized Tests in Undergraduate Admission that makes recommendations on how the SAT, ACT, and other standardized tests should be used in college admissions.
Our use of SAT and ACT test scores in the America's Best Colleges rankings is one area that the commission—made up of college admissions deans and high school counselors—weighs in on. It says:
The Commission believes that, as tests designed to provide information about individuals to colleges and universities, the SAT and ACT were never designed as measures of the quality of an institution of higher education. Accordingly, the Commission encourages U.S. News to eliminate test scores as a measure of institutional quality.
U.S. News has no plans at present to change our college rankings methodology in response to this NACAC report. Our methodology reflects the current state of college admissions, where standardized tests are still used in the vast percentage of admissions decisions and have been playing an increasingly important role over the past few years. Currently, 60 percent of colleges say that test scores are of "considerable importance" as a factor in student admissions, up from 43 percent in 1994, according to NACAC's own research. As long as standardized tests play an integral role in the college admissions process, U.S. News will use them as part of our ranking methodology.
Contrary to the commission, U.S. News believes that when combined with other indicators of academic quality, standardized test scores can be used to compare institutions. Indeed, this is what many colleges and universities do when they compare themselves with one another. We believe that the scholastic abilities of the students enrolled at one school compared with those at another are an important factor in determining the academic atmosphere on campus.
Only about 5 percent of the four-year regionally accredited colleges in the U.S. News Best Colleges universe say they don't use the SAT or ACT in admissions. U.S. News does not rank those schools. The other 95 percent of colleges say they either require the SAT or ACT for admission or say they are test optional. We have found that typically around two thirds of incoming students at test-optional schools submit standardized test scores.
The bottom line: If a meaningful percentage of colleges drop their SAT or ACT requirements for admission, then U.S. News will change our ranking model. So far, that is not happening.
Tags: college admissions | rankings | SAT | ACT
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SAT
I had mediocre SAT scores. I managed by some miracle to attend UC Berkely. I graduated in the top one or two percent of my class, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. I went on to law school, with a mediocre LSAT score, and graduated #1 in my class. Until they develop a test for drive and determination, I must wonder how many Thomas Edisons have been denied a first-class college education because of a poor standardized test score. I am willing to allow first year college grades to determine whether a student stays or goes. The thought that a single organization screens the entire college population of America for the leaders of tomorrow, using their criteria to filter out whomever, concerns me. Does anyone else out there have a clue what that means, or are we all lining up to become soylent green?
What about grade inflation?
We need a national test.
Without a test, grades will become all important.
And, high schools vary far too much to compare GPAs and class ranks.
Keep the SAT. If its an evil, its a necessary evil.
Thank you for some common sense
US News does an incredibly valueable service in providing helpful information to the consumers of higher education. The cry baby school officials who do not want to be compared to others expect consumers of education to spend 100-200k without helpful criteria that could compare the strength of their student bodies. Grade inflation is so rampant among high schools that some standard measure is required to compare students from different schools. Pure common sense. The alternative is to allow incredibly subjective decisions about which students with the same G.P.A. or class percentage rank should be admitted. For example, every high school in the nation has someone who graduates number 1. Many of these students will have similar activities and similar classes. It would be helpful, indeed perhaps dispositive, to have some measure where they fairly competed against each other. The SAT, while not perfect, at least is fair compared to other more subjective factors.
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