Powerful Testing Organization Shouldn't Dictate Academic Ability

Some of the most influential college admissions officials have moved to break the decades-long stranglehold the College Board has had on the process, saying for the first time that institutions of higher education should move away from their reliance on SAT and ACT test scores in admitting students.

It's a welcomed decision - not only among high school students who spend years anxiously prepping and taking these tests - that should extend far beyond the ivy-covered walls of college campuses. The appropriate role of these tests and the massive, multimillion dollar curriculum and testing industry created by the College Board also deserves reassessment.

The National Association for College Admission Counseling's report did not advocate ending the use of the SAT and ACT altogether, but it does advise admissions officers to consider doing without these exams and looking at other factors in a student's performance.

The commission also asks the National Merit Scholarship Corp. to stop using the College Board's PSAT/NMSQT, a precursor test to the SAT, as a screening tool for scholarship eligibility. The 21-member college admissions panel is chaired by Harvard's dean of admission; the association includes high school counselors and admissions officers from about 1,700 colleges and universities.

Not Complete Picture

The admissions officers correctly point out that the SAT and ACT, as screening tools, provide an incomplete picture of a students' ability. And there is growing concern about the test prep culture that has become pervasive in American high schools, not to mention the big-money industry that surrounds the College Board's trademark products.

It's been assumed for decades the College Board - a nonprofit association that has dominated the college prep and admissions process for generations - was the last word on academic success.

Now it's clear it is not.

This is interesting news in Florida, where much of the effort of fixing our broken high schools and middle schools seems to revolve around the College Board and prepping students for the College Board's Advance Placement tests, the SAT or the ACT.

Florida taxpayers also pay for the cost of students taking the PSAT and for tests in the College Board's Advanced Placement courses. On the state level alone, taxpayers will pay more than $5.1 million for services through the College Board's partnership with the Florida Department of Education; millions more flow from local school districts.

Following Florida's lead, other states now commit millions of public dollars a year buying into the College Board programs.

Florida education officials tout this partnership as a huge success because more students are participating in AP classes and taking the SAT and ACT. But that's an achievement partly produced by the sheer population of our public schools.

Unimpressively, Florida students' SAT and ACT scores have been relatively flat and below national averages for the past decade.

No Questions Asked

Hillsborough County has the added distinction of being the first district in the nation to fully implement the College Board's EXCELerator program - including its new math and English curriculum - in the county's high schools and middle schools at an annual cost of $6.4 million. The program is part of a relentless push to get more kids into AP classes - which has become a de facto gold-standard for academic achievement in Florida.

There is great reluctance locally to dig beneath the College Board's hard sell. The school board was supposed to have a workshop on the issue this summer when teachers loudly objected to the manner in which a new curriculum was being imposed on them, but the workshop never materialized.

If college admissions officers are now saying the SAT and ACT should not define students' academic abilities or whether they should be admitted to college, the question for Florida and Hillsborough County is whether it's reliance on College Board products is still on target.

The public is heavily invested in what the College Board has been selling. And with so much at stake - not the least our children's academic future - the public is owed a frank assessment of whether what we're buying is what our students really need.