Standardized testing is not the problem. This is what really holds students back.

After making standardized testing optional for admissions during the pandemic, elite universities such as Dartmouth, MIT, Yale, and, most recently, Brown acknowledged their mistake and reimposed a testing requirement for all applicants.

Originally, these schools bowed to critics who derided the SAT and ACT as discriminatory, inequitable, and even racist. Critics were always wrong to blame demographic differences in test scores on racial animus, but they were right about one thing:

The SAT and ACT put students at a disadvantage. all students.

Debates about testing often focus on how different socioeconomic or racial groups compare within the system, questioning why wealthier students score higher on the SAT than poorer ones or whether the ACT favors whites and Asians. about blacks and Hispanics.

This focus on disparities blinds us to a much more vital question: Do these tests even measure what's important?

SAT DEFENDS AGAINST 'MISGUIENTED' ATTACKS AS THE TEST BECOMES INCREASINGLY OPTIONAL FOR STUDENTS

Although the SAT and ACT are clearly politically biased, they are generally designed to be completely boring and neutral. Test writers intentionally choose boring and inconsequential texts that few if any test takers will have previously read in a vain attempt to ensure that no one type of student or educational method receives an unfair advantage.

Our young people spend years acquiring skills without substance to achieve scores without much meaning. (John Paraskevas/Newsday RM via Getty Images)

This bid for neutrality clearly has not worked. But much more significant is that teachers and students train for the test, which means that our most intellectually promising young people spend years of their lives focused on acquiring skills without substance to obtain scores with little meaning.

Does it matter, for example, that reading comprehension scores vary across demographic groups if the readings that students are trained to understand are as dry and meaningless as the marketing text on the side of a shampoo bottle?

Students don't go to school and universities don't exist just so kids can study anything random. stuff. The goal is to help young people become someone – a compassionate and insightful person, a critical thinker aware of the history and philosophies that shape the world around her, and someone who knows herself well enough to go out and change that world for the better.

THE TEST THAT WILL UNLEASH A COUNTERREVOLUTION IN EDUCATION

Universities have been reminded that some form of standardized testing is necessary. (iStock)

This type of person is not formed by simply acquiring skills such as reading or writing, but by interacting with revolutionary thinkers, authors and intellectuals from times past to the present day. In short, they are formed by a classical education.

Universities regularly proclaim their desire to train such people, promoting themselves as incubators of “global citizens,” “future leaders,” and “truth seekers.” However, these same universities force applicants to spend countless hours studying without acquiring knowledge, molding their minds for exams without content.

The answer is not to eliminate testing requirements. Despite concerns about disparate impact, colleges are quickly realizing that some form of standardized testing is necessary to properly compare applicants and give a fair chance to students with fewer academic resources or access to extracurricular activities.

Our current testing regime perpetuates an inequitable and unenlightening educational system. (iStock)

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But our current testing regime is counterproductive and perpetuates an educational system that is both inequitable and unenlightening.

As more schools consider how to reimpose their testing requirements, they would do well to remember: The problem is not standardized tests, but standards.

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