"When the SAT was canceled for the third time, Bellingham, Wash. high school senior Hazel Stoyka gave up. August’s exam was her final straw. The test site reduced the number allowed in for social distancing, and Stoyka was one of the booted students. She found out by chance the night before when her mom heard the news from another parent, later discovering a notice buried in her email spam folder.
With the coronavirus pandemic and wildfires wreaking havoc on testing, her experience probably sounds familiar to many high schoolers this year. Of 334,000 students registered for September’s SAT, 183,000 were barred due to site closures, leaving frustrated students and parents weighing whether SAT and ACT scores are worth the effort in a year when many colleges aren’t requiring them.
Two-thirds of all colleges and universities in the US — more than 1600 schools — have shifted to test-optional policies, and the list continues to grow, according to the National Center for Fair and Open Testing (FairTest). Some colleges are piloting multi-year policies, while others have implemented the change for 2021 only." …