No-Test Option Gives Wisconsin College a Different Look
MILWAUKEE _ Elizabeth Byers didn't really worry about having the academic chops to get in to college.
She was valedictorian at Reedsburg Area High School and had a nice set of scores: a 4.0 GPA, a 29 on the ACT and a 1,980 on the SAT.
Still, when Lawrence University asked if she wanted her test scores to be considered, she checked the "no" box. And breathed a sigh of relief.
"I was just sort of like, `Oh! That's nice!'" Byers said. "So many kids are really great students and don't have great test scores. I have good test scores, but if they were going to recognize me for what I did in school, I wanted to take advantage of that."
Lawrence, in Appleton, Wis., is among a growing list of more than 750 colleges and universities that have some kind of test-optional admissions, according to FairTest, a Massachusetts nonprofit that opposes heavy reliance on the tests. The trend comes as standardized tests have faced increased scrutiny for possible bias against students who are the first in their family to go to college, minorities and non-native English speakers.
Advocates of test-optional policies point to studies showing students who don't submit scores have lower average test scores than other admitted students, but get better grades once they enter college.
Critics argue standardized tests are essential tools for admissions officers who have to deal with grade inflation in secondary school GPAs and an increasingly murky definition of high school class rank.
When Lawrence went test-optional in late 2005, about a quarter of its roughly 2,300 applicants chose not to submit scores. About a quarter of admitted students were also non-submitters. A study of students admitted in 2006 showed non-submitters had lower test scores, but ended up with roughly the same GPAs as submitters at the end of their first term.
The school also experienced a 12 percent increase in applications when it went test-optional.
"This ends up being a good option for ... the students who are doing very well academically in school but their test scores don't necessarily match up with their academic performance," said Ken Anselment, director of admissions at Lawrence.
Lawrence's results mirrored the findings of a 20-year study at Bates College in Maine, released in 2004. The school, test-optional since 1984, found no differences in academic performance or graduation rates between score submitters and non-submitters. Bates also nearly doubled its applicant pool in the two decades after making testing optional.
"America is apparently throwing away some substantial portion of its future talent by relying far too heavily on its standardized tests as a screening system," said Bill Hiss, who led Bates' admissions office from 1978 to 2000.
Many test-optional schools are specialty institutions or have open-admissions policies. Lawrence is the only U.S. News and World Report-ranked test-optional institution in Wisconsin. The Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design does not require test scores but it relies more on a student's portfolio.
Few flagship public universities are on the roster. Test-optional has proven more attractive to small liberal arts schools. Some 32 of the nation's top 120 liberal arts colleges as ranked by U.S. News are on the list, according to FairTest.
The majority of selective colleges and universities _ including all University of Wisconsin campuses _ still use standardized tests as one piece of the complex admissions puzzle.
"It's certainly not the end-all, be-all factor," said Tom Reason, associate director of admissions for the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But it helps when high school grades and class rankings have become less reliable, he said. And public universities have an added layer of responsibility to ensure fairness and equity.
"We need to defend the decisions we make, and having test scores can help us do that," Reason said.
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