Could Covid-19 change college admissions testing forever?
August 5th, 2020Schools and colleges are making, adjusting and readjusting their plans for the start of the school year. One of the biggest topics on the minds of rising juniors and seniors is SAT and ACT testing. Is it safe to test? Will we find a spot, with the limited capacity available? Has the school of my choice gone test-optional, or even test-blind?
Seniors must think carefully about whether to test or retest this fall. Although ACT and SAT have “added” plenty of fall dates, we don’t yet know if all will pan out and, of course, each family must assess its own approach to safety of testing circumstances.
Every day new schools announce test-optional policies, and Fairtest keeps track of the growing list. However, parents and students still wonder if not taking the exams could hurt their chances of admission. On today’s blog we share several resources that might be able to answer some of your questions. This article from Palouse Pathways and another from Inside Higher Ed both give insight into the changes happening in the testing world.
Keep in mind that each day brings a new challenge and we aren’t yet able to predict how all of this will play out. The informative article linked below from NPR covers the issues we face with testing during this pandemic and adds a useful perspective.
Article referenced below from NPR.org, published June 12, 2020, written by Elissa Nadworny
Colleges are Backing Off SAT, ACT Scores …
Like many high school counselors, Crys Latham has been paying close attention to the colleges that are announcing that they’ll no longer require admissions exams for applicants. She’s a big fan of giving students the opportunity not to submit their test scores.
“We put test-optional schools on every single one of our student’s list to consider,” says Latham, who directs college counseling at Washington Latin Public Charter School, in the nation’s capital. “Because we know that not every student is going to like their scores, and a student’s test scores are not indicative of their potential or ability to be successful.”
