Plymouth State Puts the Ax to Standardized Tests

CLOCK PHOTO / COLBY AUBUT

Fall 2015 will become the first semester in Plymouth State University history to not require SAT or ACT scores on their enrollment applications. 

The decision was proposed by Director of Admissions Andrew Palumbo and his team of admissions faculty, and voted on by the Academic Affairs Committee. “The past 18 months have been a crash course in really reviewing everything that we do to support students,” said Palumbo. “Whether they be prospective or current students, and evaluating the efficacy of those efforts as well, and if they are actually doing what we think they’re doing.”

The decision placed Plymouth State on a prestigious list of other universities who have also elected to go test optional for their enrollment applications, such as Clark University of Worcester, Massachusetts, and New York University of New York City, New York. 

“The easy stuff right off the bat was just looking at prospective students,” Palumbo said. “How they find us, and how we spread the word to them. It became clear that we needed to start communicating with students through email, something we hadn’t really done before.”

Palumbo said his team’s first task was looking at what type of students the University was attracting. “Who do we accept, why, what are the standards we’re asked to uphold on behalf of the faculty and the institution.” The academic affairs committee, a committee made up of University faculty members who oversee academic policies such as enrollment standards, set those standards. Vice President of Enrollment Management Jim Hundreiser brought the proposal before the committee for deliberation and debate. 

“The committee voted unanimously to support the decision,” said Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management Dr. David Zehr, who was part of the committee. Zehr is optimistic about the decision, believing one less hoop to jump through will make the University more attractive to prospective students.

Students often go into standardized tests such as the SATs and ACTs with little if any knowledge of what is actually on the test. Referring to a study conducted by a former Harvard University dean of students, Palumbo regarded the SAT as a poor indicator of future academic success at the college level. “There are a number of factors that the SATs are better predictors of [such as] the test taker’s race, socioeconomic status, and gender,” but Palumbo said this data only acts as biases for student evaluation and standardized tests are typically geared towards Caucasian males. “It’s a bit of a generalization,” Palumbo said, “but not much.”

In the entire history of the SAT in the state of New Hampshire, Palumbo found that males outscore females in all categories every year. “Anyone on the high school level will tell you that this is not what we’re seeing on transcripts. Standardized testing reinforces quick, on the spot decision making, which is a trait more commonly found in high school males.” Palumbo said what standardized testing does not measure is general problem solving skills, which tends to be a skill more recognized in females.

Without the tests, however, the University will need a new way to measure future academic success. “Studies have proven that the two best academic predictors for future success at the college level for high school applicants are academic performance in a high school classroom, and the level of appropriate rigor a student has taken in a high school curriculum,” said Palumbo. New measurements will be reevaluating high school GPAs to factor out the easier elective courses that can often cover up a student’s lack of success in general education courses. 

Palumbo believes without the added stress of preparing for SATs and ACTs, high school students can spend more time focusing on extra-curricular activities that better prepare them for the transition to the college level. “It’s not a surprise that four years of academic success at the high school level is a better predictor than four hours taking some quirky test on a Saturday morning. So, we did the hard thing, and we said we’re going to find the data and we’re going to make the case that these tests are unfair.” 

Standardized tests also have a tendency to declare students ineligible for academic scholarships based on demographic information. The goal for future applicants is to reevaluate their eligibility based solely on academic success in order to avoid any possible biases. 

“This is something we’re proud of,” said Palumbo. “We hope students know that Plymouth State is taking a step away from the rat race, and saying, we’re a great institution, and beyond that we’re a great community.”