It's official: Ditching the SATs was a big mistake

https://archive.ph/Ygwwb#selection-975.0-1008.0

In early 2020, the University of California set the tone for the rest of 
the country when its regents voted to drop SAT and ACT admissions 
requirements through 2024. That decision, initially framed as a pandemic 
necessity, quickly reshaped admissions nationwide. By late 2022, roughly 
1,750 schools, or about 80% of U.S. universities, had adopted test-
optional policies, according to Forbes.

“It’s a sea change in terms of how admissions decisions are being made,” 
Robert Schaeffer, of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, told 
NBC News. “The pandemic created a natural experiment.”

Five years later, the results of this “natural experiment” are in. A 
report released by UC San Diego in November tells the story.  

“Over the past five years, UC San Diego has experienced a steep decline in 
the academic preparation of its entering first-year students — 
particularly in mathematics, but also in writing and language skills,” a 
new university report reads. “This trend poses serious challenges both to 
student success and to the university’s instructional mission.”

Those words might sound ominous, but they don’t do justice to just how bad 
the slide has been.

Roughly 1 in 8 UCSD freshmen are working with math skills that don’t clear 
the high school bar — a 30-fold jump since 2020. It gets worse, however. 
The report concluded that 70% of those students fall below middle school 
levels. 

To give you an idea of what we’re talking about, a full quarter of 
students failed to solve the following equation: 7 + 2 = [ ] + 6.

This means that my 9-year-old son, who tests high in math, is likely more 
equipped mathematically than many of these college students. I say this 
not as a point of pride, but to emphasize the disservice done to students 
thrust into (very pricey) college courses.

It’s not just math, however. The report found that 40% of students 
deficient in arithmetic also couldn’t write (or, in the euphemistic 
language of the report, “required remedial writing instruction”).

The report was unflinching in its assessment. 
“Admitting large numbers of students who are profoundly underprepared [for 
college] risks harming the very students we hope to support, by setting 
them up for failure,” it declares.

UC San Diego should be commended for coming forward to report a phenomenon 
that is undoubtedly true at universities across the country. 

Many at the time warned that ditching standardized tests was a bad idea. 
Research shows that high school GPAs don’t tell you much about how 
students perform once they get to campus. Standardized test results, 
however, do.

So, why did universities engage in this “natural experiment”? There is no 
single answer, but politics, ideology, and crass incentives all played a 
role.  

Let’s start with politics. As David Leonhardt pointed out in the New York 
Times, universities are run by progressives, and “standardized tests have 
become especially unpopular among political progressives.” 

Some progressives say standardized tests cause too much stress. Others say 
they’re biased to explain why men score higher, on average, than women and 
why some racial groups perform better than others. 

Ideology, a kissing cousin of politics, also plays a role. The fact that 
universities ditched standardized testing during the peak of the DEI craze 
is not a coincidence. As Leonhardt noted in the New York Times, the 
hostility to standardized tests is based largely “on the theory that they 
hurt diversity.” 

This is a kooky claim for various reasons, not least because it is rooted 
in bigotry. But there was also a method to the madness. Abandoning 
standardized tests, which are rooted in objectivity, gave universities the 
ability to admit students on their terms. By making admission more 
subjective, universities were giving themselves cover for their own 
unlawful admissions policies.

Finally, there’s the financial incentive. It’s no secret that demand for 
higher education is plummeting. (This trend is partly driven by pure 
demographics, but high tuition and the diminishing value of college 
degrees also play a role.) 

THE WOKE WAR ON STANDARDS IS DESTROYING HIGHER EDUCATION
As a result, universities are confronting an “enrollment cliff.” While 
declining numbers of new students would have posed a challenge regardless, 
the problem was worsened by pandemic-era learning losses caused by 
widespread high school closures. Removing standardized tests was a (kind 
of) solution to this problem. If not enough students are qualified to 
attend university, remove the qualifications.

In the end, ditching standardized tests will be remembered as a chapter in 
the broader story of the decline of U.S. universities. The decision didn’t 
cause the fall, but it accelerated a trend toward lower academic standards 
— one that harmed not just the reputation of universities, but also 
students who were admitted for all the wrong reasons. Sadly, they will be 
left paying the price. 

Jon Miltimore is senior editor at the American Institute for Economic 
Research. Follow him on Substack.


-- 
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump.  We look 
forward to America being great again.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that 
stupid people won't be offended.

Every day is an IQ test. Some pass, some, not so much.

Thank you for cleaning up the disasters of the 2008-2017, 2020-2024 Obama 
/ Biden / Harris fiascos, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the 
The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood 
queer liberal democrat donors.