22. Adopt test-optional policies in admissions criteria.

Admissions 09.16.24

Here’s what state government can do:

  • State legislatures should require institutions to make testing criteria, such as the SAT/ACT, optional in their admissions process.

Here’s what institutional leaders can do:

  • Higher education institutions should adopt test-optional policies in the admissions process.
  • Higher education institutions should provide guidance to admissions officers about how voluntarily submitted test score data should be considered so as not to disadvantage those students who decline to share test scores.

In order to avoid trading one faulty measure for another, admissions officers should adopt holistic review practices and take into account multiple measures of academic readiness.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 1,700 colleges have shifted to adopting test-optional policies, allowing applicants to choose whether to submit SAT/ACT scores.[i] These policies take into consideration opportunity barriers, such as the cost and access associated with test preparation and advanced courses. A study on the University of California higher education system found that about one-third of the variance in students’ SAT scores could be explained by race and socioeconomic factors, raising serious questions about its utility as a tool in measuring academic readiness.[ii] The inclusion of SAT/ACT should be made optional to increase equity in the admissions process. The adoption of test-optional policies has resulted in a 10 to 12 percent increase in Black, Latino, and Native American students matriculated.[iii]

[i]“ACT/SAT Optional List for Fall 2025.” FairTest, May 28, 2024. https://fairtest.org/test-optional-list/.

[ii] “The Growing Correlation between Race & SAT Scores: New Findings from California,” Center for Studies in Higher Education, November 15, 2015. https://cshe.berkeley.edu/news/growing-correlation-between-race-sat-scoresnew-findings-california.

[iii]Bennett, Christopher. “Untested Admissions: Examining Changes in Application Behaviors and Student Demographics Under Test-Optional Policies,” April 12, 2021. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/00028312211003526.