Why Standardized Testing Should Not Be Abolished
As young scholars, We all envisioned the SAT as the “Day” in high school. We were all beaten to death with practice tests and forums with all the “best test-taking strategies.” When that day came, we all remembered what the waffle or pancake tasted like that morning as we entered the room, coming to terms with the reality that we had to “perform” as the outline of our college futures were at stake. Fairness in admissions has become the priority of modern institutions. They strive to eliminate the SAT and ACT, standardized tests for college admissions decisions, and scholarship applications to achieve this goal. However, the abolishment of standardized testing only increases educational inequality as it will disadvantage students of color, isolating them from equal access to higher education.
When observing the current situation with prejudice at schools, educator bias remains one of the most challenging problems in education despite the focus on racial equality. Teachers’ unconscious racial beliefs lead to unjustified and biased students’ evaluations based on ethnicity and skin color. The “teacher’s bias” underestimating students of color would reasonably lead to racial discrimination in grading. Discrimination also presents during college admissions. The majority of predominantly white modern higher institutions aim to increase the percentage of black students on campuses. However, the selection of candidates is not free from racial palatability and bias. The latest studies prove that white admissions counselors prefer racially salient black high school students. They tend to exclude black applicants concerned with race and racism and thus demonstrate interracial discrimination.
It cannot be ignored that colleges and universities maintain racial quotas. Racial quotas imply a balanced percentage of students by their ethnicity to represent all races. Initially, they aimed to improve diversity in higher institutions and enhance access to education for students of color. However, today, racial quotas turn into an obstacle during college admissions. Racially biased school grading and college admissions have been primary challenges during college admissions for students of color. The abolishment of standardized testing will complicate the admission process, further promoting discrimination in education. Standardized exams are accountable and comparable, but more importantly, they provide objective measurements of the student’s general academic standing. All students respond to the same set of questions in almost the same conditions. Furthermore, they should only receive scores via blind review. The design of standardized tests excludes human factors and the possibility of favoritism and discrimination, providing more reliable returns than teachers’ grades.
The abolishment of standardized exams will lead to student evaluation by teachers and admissions counselors. As discussed above, both of them include biases due to unconscious beliefs or institution interests. Everyone knows that statistically, students of color have lower grades before graduating. The absence of standardization will ease the rejection process for admissions counselors. Imagine the feeling of rejection because you never had the opportunity to prove why you stand out. A new world where a racial quota or racial beliefs determine the future of students of color and college-based interviews will become more subjective and will not provide sufficient evidence to prove discrimination and bias.
While standardized testing is not any proper indication of adolescent intellect, Eliminating it as a higher education requirement would inevitably create an even further imbalance regarding the potential opportunities that young scholars have available to them because of ethnicity or skin color. It is hard to envision the possibility of growing up knowing you will never go to a premier institution because of a bias. Eliminating this testing endorses separating the odds of academic success, and universities will carefully examine such a destructive enactment in the future.
