Lawrence Today magazine, Spring 2005
Beginning with students enrolling for the 2006-07 academic year, Lawrence University
will no longer require students to submit the ACT or SAT for admission consideration.
With this decision, Lawrence becomes the only liberal arts college in Wisconsin
and the first member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest to adopt a test-optional
approach.
“Lawrence has traditionally enrolled students who rank among the nation’s
highest in standardized test scores, but the quality of a student’s high
school curriculum and the performance within that curriculum are really the
best predictors of academic success at Lawrence,” says Steven Syverson,
dean of admissions and financial aid. “Even the testing agencies acknowledge
that the tests add only marginally to the prediction of success in college.”
Critics contend that standardized tests (of all sorts) place pressure on high
school teachers to “teach to the test,” rather than offering a
more appropriate curriculum. In the case of the ACT and SAT, they also tend
to disadvantage minorities, rural students, and those who are unable to afford
the cost of test preparation services.
“In that context — and with the new writing segments for both the
SAT and ACT further raising the level of confusion, angst, and expense already
associated with the tests — we’ve decided to say ‘enough
already’ when it comes to the preoccupation with standardized testing,” he
says.
“We’re seeing the expansion of a billion-dollar industry devoted
to test preparation and coaching, all as a result of this disproportionate
emphasis
on standardized tests,” says Syverson, who has directed admissions operations
at Lawrence since 1983.
“Comprehensive test-preparation services can cost upward of $1,000 for
classes and materials, thereby disenfranchising students from less-privileged
backgrounds,” observes
Syverson. “In my mind, that runs counter to higher education’s
traditional mission to enhance socioeconomic mobility in America.”
In implementing a test-optional admission policy, Lawrence joins a number of
other highly selective colleges across the nation that have made similar decisions.
Among its peer nationally ranked liberal arts colleges, Bates, Bowdoin, Dickinson,
Franklin and Marshall, Hampshire, Lewis and Clark, Mount Holyoke, and Pitzer
have all adopted test-optional admission policies.
A 20-year study conducted by Bates
College and released last fall adds credence
to the argument that standardized test scores are not necessary to be able
to predict academic success in college. In its study on the effects of its
own test-optional admission policy, in place since 1984, Bates found that there
were no significant differences in academic performance or graduation rates
between those who had submitted SAT or ACT scores and those who elected not
to submit test results.
While students will still have the option of submitting standardized test scores,
Syverson says that Lawrence’s admissions officers will, as in the past,
place greater emphasis on a careful review of each individual applicant’s
high school record, extracurricular involvement, writing sample, and recommendations
when weighing a student’s application for admission.
“We strongly believe that our comprehensive review process allows us
to identify the kind of great kids we want at Lawrence, regardless of whether
or not they
submit standardized test scores,” says Syverson.
“Students who feel their high school record is strong enough to merit
admission without standardized test scores need not submit them. Ultimately,
their choice
of courses and record of achievement over four years of high school provide
a better indication of their ability to thrive at Lawrence than do the results
of a three-hour test taken on some Saturday morning.”
