The role of standardized testing in college admissions

SAT/ACT/GRE Testing

Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is standardized exams completed by many high school students before heading to college. Therefore, it contains a suite of tools designed to assess a student's academic readiness for college. Through the students SAT scores, some colleges determine the students they wish to admit and those they will not. Some colleges use SAT "cutoff score" in setting their benchmark for admission or in determining course placement. Moreover, SAT provides students with a path to opportunities, scholarship, and financial support in a fair way to all students. However, colleges also consider other factors such as an individual's work experience, high school grades, student essays and volunteerism. In the 21st century, SAT exam is still in use because they keep pace with what today's colleges are looking for, which includes measuring the student's skills required for the modern times. SAT tests one's reading, math and writing knowledge as they are taught daily in high school classrooms.

ACT exam is administered internationally to universities and colleges evaluate their candidates for undergraduate studies. English, reading, mathematics, science, and optional essays are the major tested areas. Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is admissions test used widely for graduate and business school programs. Therefore, GRE is used for admissions decisions for all types of master's, MBA, doctoral programs, specialized master's in business and for awarding fellowships. GRE tests are known to measure verbal reasoning, critical thinking, quantitative reasoning and analytical writing skills.

The area of college admissions was first carried out by Broome in his work, "A Historical and Critical Discussion of College Admission Requirements," that was first published in 1903. He described the whole process of college admissions at Harvard College during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He acknowledged them as the story of entrance requirements and admission procedures. It was during this period that prospective American college and university students examined their background, character, and their demonstrated proficiency in both Latin and Greek (Beale, 2012). In the eighteenth century, an added requirement to admissions was a working knowledge of arithmetic. In the 1900s, changes occurred in the admission requirements, which were in the direction of the greater insistence of completing a four-year course in high school. Moreover, greater flexibility in the standards of admission was experienced. As for the 1930s and 1940s, admission requirements were based on ability. Between 1949 and 1959, increased interest in standardized examinations was witnessed. Regional and national associations sponsored the exams. In the 60s, development in college admissions had a great emphasis on environmental and non-intellective factors. As such, universities became aware of the need to ensure that admitted students had a full range of talent (Beale, 2012).

Question 2

Standardized exams have become an issue because not everyone can take the exams and perform well. On this issue, we see a test-optional movement emerging in the United States to respond to the criticism made on standardized admissions tests. Research indicates that these tests are inadequate and use potentially biased measures of postsecondary promise (Belasco, Rosinger & Hearn, 2014). Students are different, and their educational backgrounds vary: they are bound to perform differently. In most instances, students do not like taking exams and therefore, they will perform poorly because they have diverged interests when it comes to taking tests. For most of them, they associate tests with difficult instances in life and therefore, their negative attitude towards the exams has led many to fail. Lack of concentration during the preparation period is another issue that has risen, and thus, many students are not prepared enough to take the test and pass. Nonetheless, it is the duty of educators to instill in students a positive attitude because the standardized exams are helpful tools when it comes to gauging the IQ of students. As such, the tests give an educator a better perspective on what to do for the student to help them in improving their weak areas.

Question 4

In future, standardized test on higher education will alleviate the existing biases when it comes to selecting students for college. As such, it is vital to consider the differences present in educational outcomes because it indicates a grave deficiency in the entire educational process and the society. Standardized tests also impact higher education positively as it combines different subjects and later tests the student to identify the areas he/she is weak or strong in to facilitate further revision and guidance in future. By conducting these tests, educational institutions are helping education facilitators and trainers to help the other students in areas that are challenging senior students. As such, they polish on the weak areas of the student and ensure that adequate information is supplied to help students identify and recognize the need and urgency to embrace the standardized tests as helpful tools in their life. In the future, students will be conducting sessions that are helpful regarding the gaining experience and adding knowledge to their baskets because they will use this forum to educate each other. Moreover, students will learn from each other, and this makes them united in their activities and in building sound structures in their learning institutions. In essence, higher education is bound to change in all areas, and this brings about progress in the school sector for both developed and developing nations.

Consequently, it is imperative to start the research by conducting a review of the educational research that is relevant to the standardized test. Later, a methodology will be presented and data obtained and analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively (Anderson & Shattuck, 2012). Qualitative research is helpful in such instances because it involves data collection and later data is converted into a numerical form to give statistical calculations and conclusions drawn. The hypotheses for this research will be helpful in finding existing relationships between standardized test and performance and even entry to college.

Performance and entry become variables that are useful in finding accurate answers that are valid and reliable for future research. It can also lead to the use of statistical computer packages such as SPSS that will help determine the existing relationship between variables. On qualitative research, we look at socially constructed nature of reality including recording, analyzing and attempting to uncover deeper meaning and the significance of human behavior and experience. Here, the interest of the researcher is in gaining a rich and complex understanding of the experience of high school students.

Since the issue at hand is a real world example, action research methodology will be applied because it involves small-scale interventions when it comes to the functioning in the real world. Moreover, a close examination of the effects of such interventions will be carried out, and an "on the spot" procedure will be applied. This is designed to deal with a particular problem, which in our case is the standardized test (Ioannidis et al., 2014). Under this study, no isolation will be made because the research will lose its meaning. A literature review will also be conducted to enable readers to understand the scope of the whole project by looking at different aspects on the issue. The methodology will have constant monitoring and evaluation and conclusions from findings will be applied and mentioned further. This is a practical form of research and is aimed at a particular problem or situation having little or no control over the independent variables. As such, the scientific requirement of generalizability cannot be attained.

Reference List:

Anderson, T., & Shattuck, J. (2012). Design-Based Research a Decade of Progress in Education Research? Educational Researcher, 41(1), 16-25.

Beale, A. V. (2012). The Evolution of College Admission Requirements. Journal of College Admission, 214, 20-22.

Belasco, A. S., Rosinger, K. O., & Hearn, J. C. (2014). The Test-Optional Movement at America's Selective Liberal Arts Colleges a Boon For Equity Or Something Else? Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 0162373714537350.

Ioannidis, J. P., Greenland, S., Hlatky, M. A., Khoury, M. J., Macleod, M. R., Moher, D., & Tibshirani, R. (2014). Increasing Value and Reducing Waste in Research Design, Conduct, and Analysis. The Lancet, 383(9912), 166-175.

Neal, D. (2013). The Consequences of Using One Assessment System to Pursue Two Objectives. The Journal of Economic Education, 44(4), 339-352.