Colleges are ending SAT/ACT tests in the name of diversity, despite research that shows they are good at predicting college success.
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Some schools now won't even look at applicants' test scores. The reason: richer kids may get tutoring, and some minority groups, on average, don’t score as well.
Bob Schaeffer of the advocacy group FairTest compares test-makers to "the tobacco industry."
He's winning his war against testing. More than half of colleges in the country are now test-optional.
"The test makers themselves admit that the SAT and ACT are inferior predictors of college performance [to grades]," Schaeffer tells me.
But here's the data: high school grades predict 33% of college grades, while tests predict 32%. Not very “inferior!” Using both grades and SATs predicts 42% of college success.
A University of California report found that this trend holds across all races and income levels: senate.ucsd.edu/media/424154/...
In other words, tests are useful predictors of college success and failure.
Yet university administrators didn't follow the faculty report's recommendations. Why? Diversity and political correctness.
"It really is about making these campuses look right,” says Jason Riley of the Wall Street Journal editorial board. "...using them to make your college catalog look more colorful... It's about aesthetics. It's not about learning."
I ask: "What's wrong with these schools saying we want a more diverse student body?”
“How you achieve it is what I take issue with," Riley says. "There's this assumption. We just get these kids in the door. They'll be fine. They'll do okay. No, they won’t! ... they're being set up to fail."
To really increase diversity, Riley says, support school choice and charter schools that succeed in preparing disadvantaged kids for college.