Spring Break
Standardized testing should be optional
Alex Sanders
Issue date: 9/29/08 Section: Commentary
Standardized tests, although cumbersome, have been a part of the Connecticut education experience since the Connecticut Mastery Test in fourth grade. With high school comes ACTs or SATs - and all the planning and stress attached to them.
According to some of the most prominent college admissions officials, the SATs and ACTs may now become optional in many schools. That is one of the best moves that schools can make for bettering education. Not taking the test could help numerous students who are not gifted with standardized test-taking ability, while taking it could help others who may have slacked off throughout high school and need a chance to redeem themselves. Optional standardized testing would help both groups of students.
Bates College in Maine, Lawrence University in Wisconsin and Smith College in Massachusetts, among others, have already made the SAT and ACT optional. The New York Times reported that the trend is growing and more institutions could make admissions decisions sans-standardized tests.
Some students have high grade point averages, an extensive list of extracurricular activities and numerous volunteer hours, but only a mediocre SAT score. The fact is that some people just aren't good at taking standardized tests. While there are people who receive higher scores after taking SAT night classes and absorbing the roots of Latin words while balancing a geometry book in the other hand, there remain other students who simply can't get a high score for whatever reason. Allowing some students to opt out of the SATs could give them a chance to show that they are diligent and intelligent by looking at other scholastic measures throughout their high school career.
Other students need the SAT to save face come senior year when they realize, just before it is too late, that it is probably a good time to start doing work and get their act together so they can get into college. Some of these students may naturally score very high on a standardized test. There are plenty of students who are simply not challenged enough in school, so they don't apply themselves. The SAT or ACT can give those students a chance to show that they do, in fact, have the intellectual capacity to get into college and actually succeed.
According to some of the most prominent college admissions officials, the SATs and ACTs may now become optional in many schools. That is one of the best moves that schools can make for bettering education. Not taking the test could help numerous students who are not gifted with standardized test-taking ability, while taking it could help others who may have slacked off throughout high school and need a chance to redeem themselves. Optional standardized testing would help both groups of students.
Bates College in Maine, Lawrence University in Wisconsin and Smith College in Massachusetts, among others, have already made the SAT and ACT optional. The New York Times reported that the trend is growing and more institutions could make admissions decisions sans-standardized tests.
Some students have high grade point averages, an extensive list of extracurricular activities and numerous volunteer hours, but only a mediocre SAT score. The fact is that some people just aren't good at taking standardized tests. While there are people who receive higher scores after taking SAT night classes and absorbing the roots of Latin words while balancing a geometry book in the other hand, there remain other students who simply can't get a high score for whatever reason. Allowing some students to opt out of the SATs could give them a chance to show that they are diligent and intelligent by looking at other scholastic measures throughout their high school career.
Other students need the SAT to save face come senior year when they realize, just before it is too late, that it is probably a good time to start doing work and get their act together so they can get into college. Some of these students may naturally score very high on a standardized test. There are plenty of students who are simply not challenged enough in school, so they don't apply themselves. The SAT or ACT can give those students a chance to show that they do, in fact, have the intellectual capacity to get into college and actually succeed.
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