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Savannah Wead

Prof. Stalbird

English 1201-507

22 April 2020

Should SAT and ACT Scores Become a Thing of The Past?

It’s test day! Number two pencils sharp and ready to go. Erasers are brand new.

Calculator is all charged up. For four whole hours focus cannot be broken, not even for a second.

There is not enough time. Try not to fall asleep while test proctors read directions like they are

robots. Approximately 3,330,496 students will sit down and take either the SAT or the ACT

every year. These students do their best at an exam that is designed for them to fail. The average

ACT score in 2019 was a 20.7. On regular tests taken in the classroom, that score would equate

to 49 percent. That is considered failing. When it comes to figuring out how much students are

learning in high school and how they will do in college, the SAT and ACT are not good

indicators, we should gauge students’ readiness for college with things like grades and

extracurricular activities.

Tests like the SAT and ACT have been around for a very long time. The first time the

SAT was administered was in 1926, and the first time the ACT was used was in 1959. They are

used to determine how well students will do in college. One number on one test decides whether

a student can get into their dream school or not. Students everywhere spend countless hours

studying for a make-or-break test that is not even based on things they have been learning all

year. Often though, the only way to really prepare is to purchase expensive test prep tools. The
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evaluations are timed multiple-choice tests that cover math, reading, language, science, and

writing over approximately four hours. 

When it comes to calculating how much information students are learning in high school

SAT and ACT should not be the first choice. These tests were not made based on the curriculum

different students attending different high schools are learning. Catherine Gewertz in, “Study:

Don’t Use ACT, SAT to Gauge School Achievement: States Urges to Keep Standards Tests”

says, schools should not use the SAT and ACT because it does not match the curriculum in

schools. This could confuse students. The reason for this is because these tests were not made to

test students' knowledge; they were designed to see how well they will perform in college (1).

Gewertz also states in, “Study: Don’t Use ACT, SAT to Gauge School Achievement: States

Urges to Keep Standards Tests”, “Less than half of the questions in English/language arts, and

less than half of the items in math, were judged to be aligned to the high school expectations in

the common core” (1). Every school in every state has different curriculum and different

resources being used to teach this curriculum, therefore students from different schools taking

the same test is not a fair or accurate way to evaluate their knowledge. Not everyone everywhere

has access to the same resources. Unfortunately, some high schools are better than others.

Students should not be punished for that. Where a student goes to school and how well the

school can teach them is out of the students’ control. 

College admissions tests have a racist background. Historically, the SAT, and other tests

like it, were one more hurdle keeping minorities from advanced education and, therefore,

economic advancement. Molly Wilde in, “The Racist History of the SAT” says that when

segregation in schools was ruled unconstitutional in 1954 some colleges used pricey college

admissions tests to keep their schools mostly white. This issue remains today. Hartocoolis in,
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“University of California is Sued Over use of SAT and ACT in Admissions” talks about in 2019,

“California has struggled to maintain diversity at the top level of its university system since

voters adopted a ban on affirmative action in 1996. The freshman class systemwide this year is

34 percent Latino, 35 percent Asian-American, 22 percent white, and 5 percent African-

American” (1). Many colleges and universities still struggle with increasing diversity on

campuses. Tests like SAT and ACT are part of the issue. Test scores for minorities are lower.

Many students coming from socioeconomic backgrounds cannot afford expensive prep classes.

Kim Essler in, “Lawsuit Claims SAT And ACT Are Biased-Here's What Research Says.”

Stereotype plays a role in test scores. Stereotypes allow people to go into these tests already

believing they are going to fail (1). Doing well on a test that you already think you are going to
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fail becomes very difficult. Not only is it difficult, but it is not fair.

Fig. 1. Shows composite ACT scores organized by race in 2017 (Jaschik 1).

Not only does race affect your test scores. Gender is also a factor in how well students score.

Kim Essler in, “Lawsuit Claims SAT and ACT Are Biased-Here's What Research Says.” says,
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female students are performing better in the classroom. Their grades tend to be higher than the

males. However, males are getting higher scores on college admissions tests (1). Why is this? A

lot of it again, comes from stereotypes. An example of a negative stereotype a female would face

going into a college entrance exam would be that boys are smarter than girls. It has also been

said that the passages being read during the test appeal more to males. Essler states in “Lawsuit

Claims SAT and ACT Are Biased-Here's What Research Says.”, “Others have suggested that a

positive attitude regarding competition favors male students taking the test” (1).  Performing well

on a test is difficult when all the odds are against you. 

The most obvious issue with college admission tests is the expensive test prep that goes

along with the test. The easiest and most effective way to ace your test is to be tutored by the test

makers themselves. Many people and businesses have profited off making students pay for test

prep. This becomes very expensive, and some families cannot afford it. Students’ test scores

should not be punished based on family income. Hartocollis tells a story of Kawita Smith. He

went to school in Los Angeles and dreamed of attending U.C.L.A. or Berkley. Because of his

SAT score, he had to change plans and only apply to test optional schools. Suddenly it seemed

his 3.56 weighted GPA did not matter. All his hard work went to waste. Smith had overcome

many obstacles in his life. Kawita has overcome being raped, being homeless, and the death of

his brother. All this hard work he had put in all his four years of high school should mean

something. People like Kawita Smith work so hard just to get shut down when an irrelevant test

score is not high enough. 

There have even been lawsuits filed against colleges because of the biased nature of these

college admission tests. In 2019 the University of California was sued because they used SAT

and ACT scores in admissions. A school in California that’s population is mainly black, and
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Hispanic sued The University of California in order to get them to stop using standardized tests

in admissions. The group was arguing that the test is biased towards minorities. Changing the

school’s application system to “test optional” was not enough for this group. They fought to get

rid of the ACT and SAT score options completely. 

The lawsuit accusing the SAT and ACT of being biased is not the only suspicious thing

that has been brought to the public’s attention. In March of 2019 there were issues with students

cheating on their college admissions test. Valerie Strauss in, “Is it Finally Time to Get Rid of the

SAT and ACT College Admissions Tests?” says, “As part of an investigation they called

Operation Varsity Blues, federal prosecutors last week charges some of 50 people, including

famous Hollywood actresses and wealthy financiers. The alleged schemes included hiring

imposters to take SAT and ACT exams or rigging the test by asking for additional time to take it

even when that wasn’t necessary” (1). Once again people with money can rig the system, while

those without are kept outside of the system looking in.  This is not the only time people have

been caught cheating on the exams. Strauss says in “Is it Finally Time to Get Rid of the SAT and

ACT College Admissions Tests?”, “As high-profile as Varsity Blues is, it is just the latest issue

facing the College Board, which owns the SAT, and ACT Inc.- including repeated cheating

scandals and fundamental questions about the value of the scores. Now, the testing giants find

themselves again defending the integrity of their exams” (1). These instances are just more

examples of how wealth can get you ahead when it comes to taking the SAT and ACT. In

Valerie Strauss’s article, “Is it Finally Time to Get Rid of the SAT and ACT College Admissions

Tests?”, she tells how the people involved in Varsity Blues were able to cheat, “Some of those

charged in Varsity Blues were alleged to have engaged in at least four different test-cheating

techniques. Those alleged schemes included hiring impersonators to take the exams; making
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phony “disability” claims to gain test-taking time; paying to change wrong answers or fill in

missing responses’ and bribing proctors and test-site supervisors to ignore these illegal acts” (1).

These accusations are serious and make the organizations look very unreliable. 

Even with all these clear issues with tests like the SAT and ACT some still believe

getting rid of them all together is a mistake. The Editorial Board in, “Getting Rid of SAT and

ACT Testing is a Mistake” says, “Critics of testing claim that high school curricular performance

is the best predictor of later success” (1). They agree that high school grades should play a part in

college admissions, but test scores are important too. This is one benefit of standardized testing;

it is the same everywhere. A spokesman from the SAT speaks in Hartocollis’s, “University of

California Is Sued Over Use of SAT and ACT in Admissions” and says, “It had made a

concerted effort to remove bias from the test that the test had evolved form an aptitude test

nearly a century ago to a test of “skills and concepts” necessary for college work” (1). The

makers of college admissions tests claim they have fixed the kinks and now, tests are fair. They

claim that the issue is not in the test. The problem we need to focus on is the school systems.

People who believe in standardized testing think that instead of getting rid of tests we should

change how schools across the world run. They want to change the fact that some schools are

better than others. If all schools provided the same curriculum and resources, giving the same

test everywhere would not be an issue. Therefore, big companies like the SAT and ACT would

continue making money off students paying for test prep and paying to take the tests.

Yes, the SAT and ACT do a good job at being standardized. However, it is not fair to test

all students the same. Valerie Strauss in, “Is it Finally Time to Get Rid of the SAT and ACT

College Admissions Tests?” says, “In 2017, the International Association for College

Admissions Counseling, which represents nearly 3,000 school counselors in 100 countries,
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issued a statement saying it had lost confidence in the College Board and ACT” (1). That is a

serious accusation coming from a large organization. If they cannot trust the ACT, how should

the public? Standardized tests test every child from every different background in the same way.

Instead of taking wealth, race, gender, lifestyle, and quality of education into consideration, they

just pass the same test out to everyone who walks in. Just because one child comes from a

different background does not mean they should be punished when it comes to applying to

colleges and universities. When all school systems are the same in quality, is when the SAT and

ACT could be used to evaluate the knowledge of children. Until then, the tests should not be

allowed in any high school, college, or university. Now that these tests have been a normality for

so long, we have allowed them to expose all the issues in our school systems. Now that all the

issues have been exposed, we no longer need the tests. Getting rid of biased test scores could

begin fixing the many issues in our school systems. 

So, what can be done to change how the higher education system works? First, we could

simply get rid of tests all together. There are plenty of other ways to predict how a student will

perform in college. One being their grades. Even though the curriculum is different at every

school, grade point average is still beneficial. Grades help to tell us about a student work ethic.

You cannot have good grades without putting in at least a little bit of work. Another thing that

would tell a lot about a student is how much they participate in extracurricular activities or

volunteer. If a student can juggle grades, sports, clubs, and volunteer work, college is the perfect

place for them. Finally, a student’s ability to overcome hardships in their life could tell a lot

about them. Instead of using test scores to judge a person’s work ethic, colleges could use all

three of these things to help gauge whether a student is right for their college. ABC states in

“Could SAT and ACT Scored Become a Thing of the Past?”, that extracurricular activities,
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leadership roles, and overcoming obstacles show how you will perform in a college setting (1).

Using these tools rather than an unfair test would be optimum. Claudio Sanchez in, “Colleges

That Ditch the SAT and ACT Can Enhance Diversity” says, “Scores on those tests are of little

value in predicting students’ performance in college.” And, “Our experience is actually that

students’ high school performance predicts college performance extremely well” (1).  We do not

need test scores to evaluate a student. 

Another way we could help eliminate the unfairness of college admissions tests is by

making all colleges and universities test optional. This would make it so, when applying for

colleges, people would not have to include an SAT or ACT score on their application, but they

could if they wanted to. So, if a student feels that their test score will benefit them, they can add

it to their application. This is not a perfect solution, but it would make it, so kids are not ruled out

because of their test score. This also makes it so more students would apply to higher education

programs. If they are not discouraged by test scores, they will apply. Test-optional schools have

more applications and more diversity! Test-optional could become the new normal. Already,

more than 1,000 colleges and universities have changed their ways. This includes the University

of Chicago which is a top-ranked school. Hartcollis says in “University of California Is Sued

Over Use of SAT and ACT in Admissions”, “This fall it (Chicago) reported that as a result of the

new policy, along with more financial aid, outreach and mentoring, the entering class of 2019-

2020 had 24 percent more first-generation and low-income students and 56 percent more rural

students that the previous year. About 10 percent of the applicants did not submit test scores, a

spokesman said” (1). This proves that when getting rid of test scores and instead giving students

the help that they need, changes can be made. 

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Getting rid of college admissions tests completely would be ideal. Not only are they not

testing students on the curriculum that teachers have been teaching them for years, but they are

causing issues with a lack of diversity in colleges. Diversity in colleges is a serious issue, and it

is about time it is fixed. Everyone deserves a chance to get into their dream school. A biased test

should not be what gets in the way of that. Many colleges and universities are starting to change

their ways. It is time the SAT and ACT become a thing of the past. 

Works Cited
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ABC News, ABC News Network, abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/sat-act-scores-thing-past/story?

id=56046920.

Board, Editorial. “Getting Rid of SAT and ACT Testing Is a Mistake.” The Washington Post,

WP Company, 31 July 2015, www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-importance-of-

standardized-tests/2015/07/31/5eba856e-36e9-11e5-9d0f-7865a67390ee_story.html.

Elsesser, Kim. “Lawsuit Claims SAT And ACT Are Biased-Here's What Research Says.”

Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 11 Dec. 2019,

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heres-what-research-says/#7c9b6cad3c42.

Hartocollis, Anemona. “University of California Is Sued Over Use of SAT and ACT in

Admissions.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 10 Dec. 2019,

www.nytimes.com/2019/12/10/us/sat-act-uc-lawsuit.html.

Jaschik , Scott. “Average ACT Scores by Race and Core Curriculum Status .” Inside Higher Ed ,

7 Sept. 2017, www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/09/07/act-scores-are-gaps-remain-

preparation-and-raceethnicity.

Sanchez, Claudio. “Study: Colleges That Ditch The SAT And ACT Can Enhance Diversity.”

NPR, NPR, 26 Apr. 2018, www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/04/26/604875394/study-

colleges-that-ditch-the-sat-and-act-can-enhance-diversity.

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