Since eliminating standardized tests in the college admissions process,
higher education institutions are struggling to judge applicants.
�It�s pure magical thinking to expect good results by eliminating
standardized tests. From the start, it�s been clear that removing
objective tests from admissions would erode standards�and it has�while
simultaneously giving a greater advantage to wealth students who can game
the �holistic admissions� system,� John Sailers, a fellow at the National
Association of Scholars, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
College admissions officers do not have standards to judge applicants
without test scores, leading to a �stressful� process.
Eliminating the use of standardized college admission tests to judge
college applicants in order to increase diversity on campus is not
working, according to an October report.

Colleges that eliminated mandatory testing for applications, going �test-
optional,� are struggling to fairly assess students because they lack
standards to judge the applicants, according to a report by Vanderbilt
University Assistant Professor Kelly Slay. While test-optional admissions
have increased applicants, a lack of academic standards has created a
�chaotic� and �stressful� process leading to bias that was intended to be
ignored.

�One of the things we concluded is that test optional does not mean an
increase in diversity � racial diversity or socio-economic diversity,� the
report stated.

More than 1,700 colleges did not require students to submit college
admissions tests such as the SAT and ACT with their applications,
according to the report.

A study by the American Educational Research Journal found that schools
which eliminated admission test requirements before the COVID-19 pandemic
in order to increase diversity saw a 1% increase in diversity of black,
Latino and Native American students. Low-income students, who test-
optional admissions also seek to target, only increased by 1% as well.

�It�s really hard to ignore test scores if that�s the way you were trained
to review applications and think about merit,� the report stated. �If the
standardized test is there in the file, it might still bias you in ways
that you�re not aware of. It�s an anchoring bias.�

Without test scores admissions officers leaned on recommendation letters
and extracurricular activities which still favored high-income and white
students, the report stated. Students without strong test scores continued
to fall at a disadvantage to students with better test scores because
those same students had the advantage in extracurricular activities and
recommendations.

�I think the students that do have the strong test scores still do have
that advantage, especially when you have a student that has strong test
scores versus a student who doesn�t have test scores and everything else
on the academics is more or less the same,� an admissions officer said in
the report.

John Sailers, a fellow at the National Association of Scholars, a
nonprofit focused on reforming higher education, told the Daily Caller
News Foundation that going test-optional is not the solution to increasing
diversity as it makes the admissions process murkier.

�It�s pure magical thinking to expect good results by eliminating
standardized tests,� Sailers told the DCNF. �From the start, it�s been
clear that removing objective tests from admissions would erode
standards�and it has�while simultaneously giving a greater advantage to
wealth students who can game the �holistic admissions� system.�

Brian Vaske, CEO of ITI Data, returns to the University of Nebraska-
Lincoln campus to share his experiences and knowledge with the
undergraduate students of Computer Science and Engineering class. on
November 3, 2017 in Lincoln, Nebraska. (Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty
Images for ITI Data)

High institutions are also using diversity, equity and inclusion
statements to vet faculty and students; professors at the Indiana
University School of Medicine are to write a �short narrative DEI summary�
if they wish to be tenured.

Harvard University and the University of North Carolina use race-conscious
admission policies, but despite this they still struggle to increase the
presence of minorities on campus.

Nicole Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, a parental rights
in education group, told the DCNF that test-optional policies require
college admission officers to use other areas of merit which still creates
a bias.

�Through policies like �test optional,� academic excellence is being
sacrificed on the altar of diversity and equity � often to the detriment
of the very students of the very students such initiatives purport to
help. By replacing standardized tests with so-called �holistic� admission
efforts, schools now simply use subjective factors like �personality� to
reject qualified students � which unsurprisingly, disproportionately,
impacts students whose test scores would otherwise have earned them places
in a merit-based program. Artificial attempts to craft a student body on
the basis of race � no matter intent � is not only immoral, but also
unconstitutional.�

Slay did not immediately respond to the DCNF�s request for comment.

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