2 Colleges End Entrance Exam Requirement

By TAMAR LEWIN
Published: May 27, 2008
The New York Times

Smith College, a women’s college in Northampton, Mass., and Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., will no longer require prospective students to submit SAT or ACT scores as part of their applications.

The number of colleges and universities where such tests are now optional — mostly small liberal-arts colleges — has been growing steadily as more institutions have become concerned about the validity of standardized tests in predicting academic success, and the degree to which test performance correlates with household income, parental education and race.

Some schools that have made standardized tests optional have found that they have attracted a more diverse student body, with no decline in academic ability.

It would be nice to think that colleges might start looking beyond what can be measured with a paper & pencil test. How much time would free up for projects you’ve always wanted to do if there were no college entrance exams? No NCLB? No Regents?