<p>Colleges making SAT, ACT optional</p>
<p>Trend is topic of debate at conference held here</p>
<p>Saturday, October 07, 2006</p>
<p>By Bill Schackner, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette</p>
<p>As debate continues over the proper role of standardized testing in college admission, the roster of schools announcing they will no longer require the exams continues to grow.</p>
<p>The hot national topic has permeated the gathering in Pittsburgh of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, which runs through today at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.</p>
<p>Gettysburg College yesterday became the latest to make SAT or ACT exams optional, announcing it was doing so after faculty voted 2-to-1 in support of the idea. A day earlier, Mitchell College in New London, Conn., announced a similar move.</p>
<p>Gettysburg, a private liberal arts campus with 2,600 students, said research on its own undergraduates over the years shows high school grades are a better predictor of campus success. The change is effective with the current recruiting season.</p>
<p>"We know that there are strong students who are very creative and who don't do as well on the SAT as they would like," said Gail Sweezey, director of admissions. "For those students, an optional SAT policy is really helpful in the admission process."</p>
<p>During a conference session on testing Thursday that drew a standing-room-only crowd, officials of some schools with test-optional policies said applicants who chose not to submit scores did about as well on campus as those who submitted scores.</p>
<p>Bates College in Maine, one of the earliest schools to go optional in the 1980s, said applicants choosing not to use math and verbal results had scores on average 140 points lower than submitters. Yet once enrolled, these non-test-submitters had "nearly identical" grades -- .05 lower on a 4.0 grade scale -- and persisted as well or slightly better than test-submitters, said Wylie Mitchell, dean of admissions.</p>
<p>"We're finding that the non-submitter actually had a slightly better percentage of graduation," he said.</p>
<p>He said he was struck by the large show of hands from admission officials in Thursday's session indicating their schools were rethinking use of tests.</p>
<p>Still, others with a stake in the debate hardly see a groundswell.</p>
<p>Fair Test, a Cambridge, Mass., group critical of standardized testing, says about 730 campuses make exams optional for all or a substantial share of their students, up from 280 schools about a decade ago.</p>
<p>But the vast majority of students still are liable to apply to a school where tests are required, said Brandon Jones, national director of SAT and ACT programs for Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, which offers admission consulting and test preparation services.</p>
<p>His firm's survey of the 300 most selective institutions in the nation found that 95 percent required the exams and were not considering a change.</p>
<p>"Obviously, every college has the right to determine its own admissions criteria," said Brian O'Reilly, executive director of SAT information services with the College Board.</p>
<p>He said tests are a very strong predictor of performance, and he wondered why schools would exclude any data about an applicant. He said part of the motivation could be an enrollment edge, because schools "are almost guaranteed to increase their applications." </p>
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<p>(Bill Schackner can be reached at <a href="mailto:bschackner@post-gazette.com">bschackner@post-gazette.com</a> or 412-263-1977. )</p>