The New Standard: Colleges are moving away from standardized test scores due to the wealth and privilege that play into these tests.

In an effort to make the SAT more accessible, the College Board announced on Jan. 19 that it has removed the optional essay and section tests from the exam. 

Though the removal of the essay portion has streamlined the test, the lack of accessibility to the test and resources for preparation, as well as bias within the world of standardized testing, still exists. 

ACT Inc. and the College Board say that their tests are a predictor of how students will perform in college. A growing number of students feel these tests fail to do this due to a gap in scores between those from different socioeconomic groups.

The trend of universities switching to test optional applications has been very slow and gradual — Although COVID-19 has caused a large number of schools to fully embrace the test optional application process.

One school — Bowdoin University in Maine — Has led the charge in the test optional application process. Infact, it has been test optional since 1969 and was the first university in the nation to do so. According to the admissions page on their website, they believe this policy allows the student to decide what best represents their academic abilities. 

Since a shrinking majority of universities still require a test score in order to apply, many states have taken it upon themselves to even the playing field among different demographic groups by providing resources and programs for these students.

Though many states offer the first ACT to students for free, some are limited to taking the test one time. Kansas is among a few states that offer at least one ACT for free, but don’t require students to take it. Students who take the test once may not get the score they want — or need — for college admissions.

Though this allows students to take the test who otherwise wouldn’t be able to, it’s free only once. The cost of the ACT is $46 — plus an extra $29 if a student registers late. This, plus the cost of test preparation, but for other families, it can be out of reach.

For some students retesting improves a student’s score. Senior Emmett Liljegren took the ACT for the first time his freshman year and scored a 32. After spending two years doing self test prep, he was able to score a perfect 36. Liljegren achieved this without professional tutoring since he and his family could not afford it.

To help other students in similar situations as himself, Liljegren led a book drive for test preparation books last year, which are now available for free in the East library for students to study with on their own time.

East also provides programs for students to get additional assistance. In 2018, the East Fund provided a one-time donation of $15,000 to the Love Fund earmarked for “educational purposes,” according to East Fund president Lindsay Sowden. This allowed students to get ACT or SAT preparation and general tutoring for free through programs such as East for Excellence.

Though East students are privileged in the fact that there are programs available to them in the community and at school, other communities don’t have these resources.

According to FairTest.org — a group that studies analytics and wrongdoings of the College Board and ACT Inc. — minority groups consistently score lower than other demographic groups. 

In 2019, the average SAT score for Black students was 933, while the average score for white students was 1114.

FairTest.org also found that students with parents who have college degrees tend to score higher on standardized tests. Students whose parents had at most a high school diploma scored an average of 926 on the SAT. However, students whose parents had at most a graduate degree scored an average of 1194 on the SAT. 

Test scores tied to demographics and family education can put students at a disadvantage for college admissions for generations.

According to FairTest.org, a large reason for this disparity in test scores is access to tutoring.

At Get Smarter Prep — a popular test preparation company in the East community — the cheapest tier of tutoring costs $150 an hour. With an average of nine, one-and-a-half-hour sessions, the total bill for the cheapest tier of tutoring is $2,025 — which in a survey of 281 East students, only 20% said they would be willing to pay that amount.

This is where the success of a student’s test scores begins to rely on family income. 

Senior Caroline Kuhlman — who applied test optional to nine schools and was accepted into eight — said that she was able to improve her ACT score by four points through tutoring. However, while taking the preparation course, she was able to see the privilege in tutoring.

“I was in a preparation course, and everyone around me was white and privileged,” Kuhlman said. “Since tutoring can run at around $2,000 in some cases, it’s tailored to people who are privileged and willing to spend the money.” 

A 2015 analysis showed that families who have an income of less than $20,000 scored the lowest on these tests, while families with an income of over $200,000 had the highest scores. 

According to Niche.com, Shawnee Mission West — with a median household income of $58,000 — has an average SAT and ACT score of 1210 and 26 respectively. In contrast, Shawnee Mission East — with a median household income of $84,000 — has an average SAT and ACT score of 1320 and 28 respectively.

Senior Sophie Rice believes standardized tests shouldn’t be weighted as heavily in college admissions because of the disadvantage it puts middle and lower class families at.

“I think it’s a really good predictor of future college success, but I think it’s only a good predictor when it’s put in combination with other factors,” Rice said. “Obviously, standardized testing really benefits the rich and the wealthy, but if you have two students who have equal grades and equal socioeconomic status, these scores are a pretty good deciding factor.”

Studies have also shown that some sort of gender bias is present in standardized tests. Despite that fact, in 2019, girls received an average score of 519, while boys received an average of 537 in the math section of the SAT. Though not as large of a margin compared to racial and economic bias, it’s still notable.

Explanations for this disparity on the basis of gender range from the amount of male to female characters in a question to the design of the test. Researchers discovered that one long test — as opposed to one that is split into sections — may help even the playing field for women. This is because females have a better long term attention span, where males have a better short term attention span.

With all of this evidence to support the claim that standardized tests aren’t accurate or fair, many schools are diving headfirst into test optional policies. As of September 2020, 1,600 universities are test optional.

These test optional schools are more focused on students’ academic history, because they’ve realized strong students can have great academic track records and perfect GPAs, yet at the same time have low test scores. 

The University of Kansas and Kansas State University are now both test optional for admissions, as well as scholarships. These universities fully implemented this policy when COVID-19 first hit, but they plan on keeping it, according to the admissions pages on their websites.

Senior Austin Housley applied to twelve colleges and didn’t submit a single test score. He believes that he’s a strong student, but not a good test taker.

“Standardized testing has never really accurately shown how I can perform in school,” Housley said. “You can’t base how a student will perform in college based off of how a student does on a test where they sat in a room for five hours.” 

In a similar situation, Kuhlman believes submitting a test score would have actually hurt her.

“My GPA was so high, and I am such a poor test taker, that submitting a test score could have hurt me more than it would have helped me,” Kuhlman said.

One study shows “non-submitters” — what the study dubs students who opt to not submit a test score — were slightly less likely to be admitted, but the yield — percentage of accepted students who actually enroll — was much higher than those who chose to submit a score. 

Liljegren — who has taken the ACT twice and the SAT once — agrees with this change in the college admissions process, and believes it will provide more reliable information about students.

“[These] tests are not accessible,” Liljegren said. “Colleges should be focusing on grades, extracurriculars and achievements instead of a score that only truly measures performance on the test.”