Reflections on a Century of College Admissions Tests

Abstract


The College Boards started as achievement tests designed to measure students’ mastery of college preparatory subjects. Admissions testing has significantly changed since then with the introduction of the Scholastic Aptitude Test, Lindquist’s creation of the ACT, renewed interest in subject-specific assessments, and current efforts to adapt K–12 standards-based tests for use in college admissions. We have come full circle to a renewed appreciation for the value of achievement tests. Curriculum-based achievement tests are more valid indicators of college readiness than other tests and have important incentive or signaling effects for K–12 schools as well: They help reinforce a rigorous academic curriculum and create better alignment of teaching, learning, and assessment along the pathway from high school to college.

Standardized testing for college admissions has seen extraordinary growth over the past century and appears to be on the cusp of still more far-reaching changes. Fewer than 1,000 examinees sat for the first College Boards in 1901. Today more than 1.5 million students take the SAT, 1.4 million sit for the ACT, and many students take both. This does not count many more who take preliminary versions of college entrance tests earlier in school, nor does it include those who take the SAT Subject Tests and Advanced Placement (AP) exams. Admissions testing continues to be a growth industry, and further innovations such as computer-based assessments with instant scoring, adaptive testing, and “noncognitive” assessment are poised to make their appearance.
Despite this growth and apparent success, the feeling persists that all is not well in the world of admissions testing. College entrance tests and related test preparation activities have contributed mightily to what has been called the “educational arms race”—the ferocious competition for admission at highly selective institutions (Atkinson, 2001). Many deserving low-income and minority students are squeezed out in this competition, and questions about fairness and equity are raised with increasing urgency. The role of the testing agencies themselves has also come into question, and some ask whether the testing industry holds too much sway over the colleges and universities it purports to serve. Underlying all of these questions is a deeper concern that the current regime of admissions testing may impede rather than advance our educational purposes.