Harvard College and the California Institute of Technology announced this week that they will require prospective students to submit standardized test scores again, joining several other institutions that have recently made SAT and ACT scores a requirement for undergraduate admission. According to The Washington Post, colleges and universities like Dartmouth, Yale, and Brown have cited data suggesting that SAT and ACT scores were the best predictors of students’ academic performance when announcing their decision to bring back the testing policy.
If you would like more context on the matter, please consider Herman Aguinis, the Avram Tucker Distinguished Scholar and Professor of Management at the George Washington University School of Business. His interdisciplinary research addresses the global acquisition and deployment of talent in organizations and organizational research methods (i.e., behavioral science and data science). Every year since 2018, he has been ranked among the world’s top 100 most influential business and economics researchers.
Aguinis published new research in the Journal of Applied Psychology to explore predictive bias in college admissions testing policies. The study provides statistical evidence of predictive bias in the use of college admissions testing and supports the case for test-optional policies to promote equal opportunity. The study suggests that standardized tests like the SAT don’t properly forecast who will do well in college similarly across groups. For example, an African American and a White college applicant with the exact same SAT score are not predicted to eventually receive the same college GPA—just because of their ethnicity. This goes contrary to basic fairness and equal opportunity principles. The science also suggests that test-optional admission policies can help identify prospective students and help ensure diversity at the same time.
If you would like to speak with Prof. Aguinis about the impact of testing and its implications for students in the U.S. and globally, please contact GW Senior Media Relations Specialist Cate Douglass at [email protected].
-GW-