Should Colleges Consider SAT/ACT Scores?

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Student decisions about which college to attend are made on a variety of criteria, not always well thought out.  Athletics, social life, location and creature comforts are certainly important but the reason colleges exist is to enhance learning.

What is required for admission serves as a statement of priorities as to what is valued by colleges.  ACT and SAT represent and symbolize that excellence in learning is at the core of the collegiate experience.

Imagine a world without these entrance tests and the incentives they provide for students to buckle down academically.  All the non-scholastic forces at work in a teenager’s world would certainly be more difficult to manage without the reminders of the deferred rewards of studying hard.

What the ACT and SAT measure are things that, once learned, are seldom forgotten.  They primarily assess processes and ways of thinking that help students make a living and a life, not facts.

There are many wonderful examples of working adults reentering the academic community to earn degrees they never started or didn’t finish right out of high school. These so-called “non-traditional” students have discovered, perhaps from having their career paths blocked, that it is never too late to learn.  How many more high school graduates would pass up the chance for a collegiate experience if there were no pressures on them to achieve academically as represented by the entrance exams?

This is not just an argument in favor of a more educated citizenry, important as that is.  It is also a case for a better-educated, more highly skilled workforce in an increasingly scientific, technological economy.

ACT and SAT by themselves do not guarantee that academic quality will be valued.  But they are certainly strong pillars protecting the importance of learning in directing young people to make informed choices about their futures.