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Laura Solomon
Professor Jennifer Courtney
Writing 2010-062
2 November 2015
Standardized Tests and College Success
Students all over the U.S. are nervously waiting moments before they are
handed a standardized test. Schools seem to indoctrinate students into
thinking standardized tests determine their educational pathways, which
sadly they do. The ACT and its counterpart, the SAT, have become one of the
largest determining factors in the college-admissions process. We might step
back and ask ourselves, where did it all begin? Standardized tests first
appeared in China thousands of years ago. In order to gain a government
job, Chinese people were required to be tested on how well they knew
Confucian philosophy. After the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s, teenaged
students began entering the traditional workplace, and standardized tests
were used to efficiently test a large number of employees. In the 20th
century, the scores were used as a basis for admission into a university
(Fletcher). As time wore on, these standardized tests evolved into the fourhour exam they are today, and people started questioning their place on
college applications.
Some researchers view standardized tests as a necessary aspect of
college applications, because they assume it is the best predictor of college
success. Other people believe there is too much emphasis on these scores,

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and other facets of the student need to be looked at when deciding if the
individual should be accepted into a college. Universities tend to believe that
standardized testing is the easiest way to predict a students college
success. Wayne Camara, a featured author in Educational Measurement,
describes college success as a culmination of college GPA, college credit
courses, and the time it takes to get a degree. Using Camaras definition of
college success, could standardized test scores really access the intellectual
ability of a student in order to predict college success? Most researchers will
argue that standardized test scores cannot fully access a students ability, so
it is unreasonable to use the scores in predicting how well the student will do
in college.
Another point of discussion is the limitations of standardized tests on
college admissions. Students are being deprived of the education of their
choice because universities have placed such an emphasis on standardized
test scores. Educators and policymakers across the country are subjecting
the ACT and SAT to unprecedented scrutiny. Minority and disadvantaged
students are limited when it comes to getting into college because they have
not had the opportunities or help that privileged students have had on
standardized test taking. Most standardized tests have a fee in order to take
them, so low income students do not have the amount of money needed to
take tests more than once and sometimes not even at all. Since the fair
education of students is at stake, this topic needs to be addressed
immediately. In reviewing the literature on the reliability of standardized

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testing and the affect it has on college admissions, this text will examine the
history of standardized testing in more depth and bring together peoples
viewpoints of the many predictors of college success. Ultimately what is at
stake in this conversation is students education, because of the high
scrutiny put on students test scores in college admission.
History of Standardized Testing
The earliest record of standardized testing comes from China, as I
mentioned before. China is where applicants for government jobs had to fill
out tests that assessed their knowledge of Confucian philosophy and poetry.
In the West, examiners usually favored giving essays. But as the Industrial
Revolution took school-age kids out of the farms and factories and put them
behind desks, standardized examinations were used as an easy way to test
large numbers of students quickly.
The SAT and the ACT are by far the most famous standardized tests
today. The SAT was founded in 1926 as the Scholastic Aptitude Test by the
College Board, a nonprofit group of universities and other educational
organizations. The original test lasted 90 minutes and consisted of 315
questions testing knowledge of vocabulary and basic math. By the end of
World War II, the test was accepted by enough universities that it became a
standard for high school seniors. It remained largely unchanged until 2005
when a writing section was added (Fletcher).
In 1959 an education professor at the University of Iowa, Everett Franklin
Lindquist, developed the American College Testing (ACT) as a competitor to

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the SAT. The ACT assesses students on their knowledge of scientific facts and
principles and the test is scored on a scale of 0 to 36 (Grabianowski). The
ACT is more commonly accepted in the Midwest and South, while schools on
the coasts show a preference for the SAT. The SAT is geared toward testing
logic, while the ACT is considered more a test of accumulated knowledge.
In the 21st century, the SAT and the ACT are just part of a multitude of
tests students may face before reaching college. The marathon four-hour
Advanced Placement examinations which some universities accept for
students who want to opt out of introductory college-level classes remain
popular. There's also the PSAT, taken in the junior year as preparation for the
full-blown SAT and as an assessment for the coveted National Merit
Scholarships (Fletcher). It is clear that standardized tests have evolved over
time. They have changed from simply testing ones knowledge on the
Confucian philosophy and poetry to the future-determining tests we see
today. The huge emphasis placed on this new version of standardized testing
is restricting students from gaining the education from the college of their
choice. When standardized tests were first developed, they were about
measuring someones skills and knowledge. With the increase in questions
and the decrease in time, these tests have become more about test strategy
and less about your own personal knowledge and ability to correctly answer
a question (Blackey 54).
Reliable Predictors of College Success

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According to a chart on the official ACT website, act.org, a student is

prepared for college if they receive an eighteen in English, a twenty-two in
Mathematics, a twenty-two in reading, and a twenty-three in science. These
numbers are shockingly low yet there are still many students who are
considered prepared, that dont even make it through college. What does it
mean for a student to be prepared? How can a four-hour test fully assess
how prepared a student actually is for college? What are standardized tests
supposed to assess? None of these tests actually look directly at what is
being taught in schools. They all rely on other standardized tests, like the
ISAT or NAEP, to determine the basic curriculum for their tests. If these tests
are inaccurate, the entire system is flawed (Streetman).
As of today, there is a huge reliance on standardized test scores in
college admissions which have generated a growing number of complaints.
Some applicants, especially members of underrepresented minority groups,
believe that the test is culturally biased. Other critics argue that high school
GPA and results on SAT subject tests are better than scores on the SAT
reasoning test at predicting college success. Jeff Allen and Jim Sconing, ACT
experts, conclude that Although [standardized tests] are useful predictors of
success in first-year college courses, ACT scores above the cutoffs do not
guarantee success. There are so many other factors that determine college
success of a student that one ACT score should not predict success. Finally,
there is mounting evidence that SAT scores are correlated not only with race

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but also with parental income and education, which produces an upward
social class bias in the profile of admitted students.
Owing partly to these concerns, growing numbers of four-year colleges
are moving away from the SAT test, giving students the option of submitting
SAT scores or eliminating them altogether from consideration in the
admission decision. At the beginning of 2010, the website of the National
Center for Fair and Open Testing, listed the names of more than 830 fouryear colleges that do not use the SAT I or the ACT test to admit substantial
numbers of freshmen. Many of these schools are nonselective institutions
that have never required standardized tests, but momentum is picking up
especially among smaller liberal arts colleges. At the same time, the
percentage of colleges indicating that they attach considerable importance
to admission test scores has risen from 46 percent in 1993 to 60 percent in
2006 (Espenshade).
Other critics, like Richard Sawyer, believe high school GPA should have
more weight in the admission process. Many studies have been conducted to
compare the abilities of these tests, and for these studies investigators have
concluded that both tests are equally capable of predicting first-semester
college grades. However, when the two tests were used alone or along with
the High School Percentile Rank (HSPR) the results were the best prediction
of GPA, so the HSPR is the best single predictor of success (Aleamoni). The
study takes the same student data and compares it over a four year period
and concludes that high school GPA is a better indicator of success and

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performance (Geiser, Santelices). Geisers claim is similar to William C. Hiss,

and Valerie W. Franks conclusion that high school GPA is a better predictor of
college success, rather than the SAT, especially for minority students.
Limitations of Standardized Tests on College Admissions
SAT scores have been proven to have a correlation with the success of
students in universities. SAT/ACT tests are debated because they are not fair
to minorities. Small universities are able to choose more diverse applicants
while larger universities cant (Zwick 423). Disadvantaged students do not
have the same opportunity to be educated, which can lead to low test
scores. When students get low scores on these entrance exams, they are
forced to go to a less selective school or not go to college at all. Colleges that
admit based off these scores are limiting the education that students could
potentially gain (Hyman).
In order to fix this limitation problem, universities could experiment for
themselves if a test-optional policy would work to find more diverse
applicants. For example Wake Forest University is a school in Winston-Salem,
N.C., and is one of the most prominent schools that have moved to test
optional. By making the admission test-optional the school received a large
pool of applicants that was more diverse (Hoover, Supiano). Hiss and Franks,
mentioned previously, prepared a study for college/university admission
offices to consider the value of implementing optional standardized testing
policies. The study takes testing and cumulative GPA data from thirty-three
public and private colleges/universities. The results support more students

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applying and successfully completing colleges for those who otherwise, if

ACT/SAT tests were required, would not apply.
Another great example is Providence College, a small liberal arts college,
which has always tried to admit applicants that are from minority groups. In
the admission process they focus more on the grades the applicants received
in high school and what classes they took. They are now test-optional and do
not focus on standardized tests. Also, their scholarships are more need based
than merit based. This makes it so applicants that cannot afford school have
more of a chance to go and succeed. They realize that there is a lot at stake
with this issue of standardized tests, and they treat it with care (Shanley
431). Charles Rooney talks to college administration, trying to get their
attention to the issues of using ACT/SAT scores. He says that universities
need to deemphasize the ACT and SAT in the admissions process, in terms of
diversity and quality of applicants. He also adds the idea of the
underrepresented groups that dont have the opportunity to get high
ACT/SAT scores. Joseph A. Soares simply says that universities should make
their admission process test optional or no test score required at all. He gives
examples of many of the flaws in the SAT and how it restricts many different
types of social groups to participate and excel (Soares). Because of the
emphasis put on test scores, most students who would apply to colleges if
they were test-optional would not end up applying at all because the
application process of most schools limits the schools that can be attended.
Final Examination

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Think about what would happen if all colleges stopped using the ACT or
SAT scores on their applications. Students would spend less of their time
doing test preparation and taking prep-classes, and more of their time
focusing on schoolwork. It could even impact the primary education system.
If colleges stopped judging students by their scores, maybe elementary
schools would stop using these scores to benchmark the students, and they
too would find a new way of gauging the progress of a student. A lot of
people are calling for a change to the educational system. If colleges
reconstruct their application process, it could be the domino effect the
system needs to see. There are too many discrepancies between people for
colleges to still be using these scores as an indicator of intellectual abilities.
It is obvious from this literature review that many authors, researchers,
and universities have completed a tremendous amount of studies on this
topic of standardized testing. Universities should move away from placing so
much weight put on standardized testing and move toward a more
reasonable predictor. If universities could make the change, then students
wouldnt be as limited in the colleges they can attend. This topic is relevant
because students are being deprived of higher education because of their
test scores. Minority students are not able to go to college because of the
cutoff college admissions have placed on these tests. More schools should
experiment with a test-optional application process and see what results
they get back. If universities are not willing to experiment with a test-

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optional policy then they should at least reevaluate their admissions process
and come up with a better way to assess if the student is college ready.

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Work Cited
"ACT College Readiness Benchmarks." ACT.org 2015. Web. 05 Oct. 2015.
Aleamoni, Lawrence M. and Linda Oboler. "ACT versus SAT in predicting first
semester GPA." Educational and Psychological Measurement 38.2
(1978): 393-399.
Allen, Jeff and Jim Sconing. Using ACT assessment scores to set benchmarks
for college readiness. ACT Research Report Series 2005-3. ACT
Incorporated, 2005.
Blackey, Robert. So Many Choices, so Little Time: Strategies for
Understanding and Taking Multiple-Choice Exams in History. Society
for History Education 1.43 (2009): 53-66.
Camara, Wayne. "Defining and measuring college and career readiness: A
validation

framework." Educational Measurement: Issues and

Practice 32.4 (2013): 16-27.

Espenshade, Thomas J., and C. Y. Chang. "Standardized admission tests,
college performance, and campus diversity." Unpublished paper. An
earlier version of this paper was presented at the Conference on
Rethinking College Admissions, Wake Forest University. 2009.
Fletcher, Dan. "Standardized Testing." Time 11 Dec. 2009. Web. 01 Oct.
2015.
Geiser, Saul and Maria Veronica Santelices. "Validity of High-School Grades in
Predicting Student Success beyond the Freshman Year: High-School
Record vs. Standardized Tests as Indicators of Four-Year College

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Outcomes. Center for Studies in Higher Education Research &

Occasional Paper Series: CSHE. 6.07. (2007). Web. 4 Oct. 2015.
Grabianowski, Ed. "A Brief History of the ACT." HowStuffWorks.com.
InfoSpace LLC, n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2015.
Hiss, William C., and Valerie W. Franks. "Defining promise: Optional
standardized testing policies in American college and university
admissions." Report of the National Association for College Admission
Counseling (2014). Web. 4 Oct. 2015.
Hoover, Eric, and Beckie Supiano. "Wake Forest U. Joins Ranks of TestOptional Colleges." The Chronicle of Higher Education 39.54 (2008):
A21. Print.
Hyman, Joshua. ACT for All: The effect of mandatory college entrance exams
on postsecondary attainment and choice. Working paper, University of
Michigan, 2013.
Rooney, Charles and B. Schaeffer. "Test Scores Do Not Equal Merit."
FairTest.org (1998). Web. 4 Oct. 2015
Sawyer, Richard. "Beyond correlations: Usefulness of high school GPA and
test scores in making college admissions decisions." Applied
measurement in education 26.2 (2013): 89-112.
Shanley, Brian J. "Test-Optional Admission at a Liberal Arts College: A
Founding Mission Affirmed." Harvard Educational Review 77.4 (2007):
429-35.

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Soares, Joseph A. SAT wars: The case for test-optional college admissions.
Teachers College Press, 2012.
Streetman, Chris. "Abolishing the ACT and SAT." Mckendree.edu McKendree
University (2012). Web. 2 Oct. 2015.
Zwick, Rebecca. "College Admissions in Twenty-First-Century America: The
Role of Grades, Tests, and Games of Chance." Harvard Educational
Review 77.4 (2007): 419-29.