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| Racial Issues Prompting Large Numbers of Colleges and Universities to Abandon the SAT and ACT Tests: There are now at least 730 colleges and universities in the United States that no longer require applicants to submit scores from either the SAT or ACT college entrance examinations. The list of four-year colleges and universities that no longer require applicants to take standardized tests has grown exponentially over the past decade. In 1994 there were about 100 higher educational institutions that did not require undergraduate applicants to take the SAT or ACT. Three years later, in 1997, the list had grown to 280 schools. Over the past eight years the number of schools has nearly tripled. Racial disparities in test scores and concerns that the tests tend to unfairly exclude minorities from consideration for admission continues to be a major reason why colleges and universities are abandoning the SAT and the ACT. Frank Vellacio, senior vice president of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, says, "We are increasingly concerned with the inherent racial and socioeconomic bias in standardized testing as well as the fact that no test can communicate a student's passions, interests, motivations, and achievements." Many of the nation's highest-ranked colleges no longer require the SAT. They include Hamilton College, Bates College, Connecticut College, Bowdoin College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Bard College, and Middlebury College. A large number of historically black colleges and universities have also decided to no longer require applicants to submit standardized test scores. They include Alabama State University, the University of the District of Columbia, Coppin State University, Alcorn State University, Edward Waters College, Southern University, Grambling State University, Shaw University, and Allen University. | |
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