Is ACT/SAT Testing becoming obsolete?

Albert Einstein once said, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it’s stupid.” It seems the American education system needs to take a leaf out of Einstein’s book. Today, they use standardized tests as the metric for teachers to educate our students. Standardized testing is the bane that treats all students like numbers and fails to account for specifics of circumstances. It is important to remember that standardized testing fails to actually teach or test content and costs massive amounts of money which could be allocated to more worthy educational causes, making it simply illogical to continue administering these tests.

The Problems with SAT/ACT Testing

Historically, SAT and ACT scores have been considered to predict a student’s future college achievement. Thus, students with the highest scores are more likely to earn admittance to prestigious schools. But recently, critics and researchers have called this relationship into question and are wondering what value lies in ACT or SAT scores. Critics of these tests point to their archaic vocabulary in the verbal section or the focus on getting a specific answer in the math section as signs of the tests’ outdated methodology. While such questioning is expected from critics, hearing the president of the College Board criticize the value of the current SAT preparation training and scoring should be disconcerting.

In an interview discussing their redesign, director David Coleman admits that the test itself needs to change from one of “picking the right answer” to a test that measures a student’s solid understanding of the material and evidence critical thinking. They both intend to change their tests in the near future to modernize and account for global changes in educational philosophy and testing. Multiple critics state that changing the test won’t negate the fact that these tests do not accurately predict a student’s future performance. Some have criticized the idea that ACT or SAT scores can function as indicators of success, pointing out that the costs of testing and test prep create an unfair burden for students from lower socioeconomic classes. In my opinion, standardized tests succeed are doing nothing helpful, and end up taking away a lot of class time which could have been used for genuine education. They cost large quantities of money which could be used for many different expenses that American public schools could incur.

Universities going SAT/ACT Test-Optional

While the SAT and ACT are going through growing pains, the increasing number of universities open to test-optional applications is a sign that the creators of these tests must modify them in a way that is predictive of overall student success. In fact, many universities ranked high on the US News top schools list, like the University of California circuit, Princeton, Brown, MIT, Cornell, Dartmouth, and Yale have gone test-optional for the upcoming year’s applications. Recent records show that schools that go test-optional rarely switch back to compulsory standardized testing requirements, suggesting a triumph for a more holistic application review. As a result, students we hope that students will trend away from taking the SAT or ACT and pour their energy, anxiety, and effort into other, more effective means of establishing their value to different colleges.

References

Fairtest.org. 2020. What's Wrong With Standardized Tests? | Fairtest. [online] Available at: <https://www.fairtest.org/whats-wrong-standardized-tests> [Accessed 3 August 2020].

IvyWise. 2020. Are The SAT And ACT Essays Becoming Obsolete? | Ivywise. [online] Available at: <https://www.ivywise.com/ivywise-knowledgebase/resources/article/are-the-sat-and-act-essays-becoming-obsolete/> [Accessed 3 August 2020].

Lieggi, N., 2020. An Outdated Tool, Standardized Testing Hurts Education. [online] Pelham Examiner. Available at: <https://pelhamexaminer.com/14685/showcase/a-relic-of-a-forgotten-era-found-in-standardized-testing/> [Accessed 3 August 2020].

ResilientEducator.com. 2020. Are The SAT And ACT Obsolete? Test-Optional Colleges Increase | Resilient Educator. [online] Available at: <https://resilienteducator.com/news/will-the-sat-and-act-become-obsolete/> [Accessed 3 August 2020].