Amid this pandemic, many things will be irrevocably changed. Among those is whether the ACT and SAT will be mandatory for college admissions next year. An increasing number of universities are dropping the SAT and ACT requirement for fall 2021 admissions in response to the coronavirus pandemic. With high schools across the nation shut down, the companies behind the ACT and SAT canceled administrations of the exams until June, forcing a impressively large number of colleges and universities to suspend the test as a requirement. In total, about 51 universities and colleges have dropped the ACT/SAT requirement for at least the Fall of 2021.

While many schools have dropped the test altogether, there are still some that want to temporarily make the tests optional. This “opportunity” has given students the time to advocate for optional testing to become a permanent thing. Unfortunately, their voices weren’t enough to convince the opposing parties because both the College Board and ACT, Inc. stand by their testing. According to Ed Colby, spokesman for ACT, Inc, “ACT scores are highly predictive of success in college. They provide colleges with a standardized measure of academic readiness that can be used to compare students from different schools, districts, and states on a level playing field, something that no other admission factor can provide” (CNN). So while many believe the testing shouldn’t be a mandatory requirement, others believe it is non negotiable. Just to prove their point, the ACT started exploring new options for the test for the next school year, saying that “testing at home is one of the new test options that we are currently exploring and evaluating.” The growing wave of schools moving to test-optional policies could be a turning point for the way colleges and universities assess the value of using test scores in admissions decisions in the future.

Many things are uncertain in these times, but where difficult choices are being made, the one thing everyone holds to be true is that people’s health comes first. Zachary Goldberg, spokesman for the College Board, stated that “the health and safety of students is our first priority” (Washington Post). No one knows exactly what will happen next with this pandemic or with many educational decisions, but the priority on everyone’s mind should be safety and keeping their families safe.

Sources:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/14/us/coronavirus-colleges-sat-act-test-trnd/index.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/04/10/sat-act-2021-coronavirus/