#fairtesting

[dania-sadeddin]

College Admissions

‘The colleges going test-optional because of the pandemic so far are a small but varied group, including one Ivy League school, Cornell University. Others include Tufts University; Boston University; Northeastern University; Middlebury College; and the University of California system, according to a list maintained by FairTest, a Boston-area organization. FairTest has long worked to end the misuse of and bias in standardized testing. Since the pandemic, a national student activist group, called Student Voice, has joined the rallying cry with petitions, emails to colleges, and a #TestOptionalNow hashtag on Twitter.’

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/05/01/opinion/colleges-are-making-sat-act-optional-now-will-that-stick/

[collegeessayguy]

🎧 Take a listen to this podcast episode, where I sit down with Bob Schaeffer, Public Education Director of FairTest, a non-profit that advocates for better forms of student assessment. Bob’s got a list of test-optional schools that he updates regularly, which I’ll let him tell you about.

SHOW NOTES

This episode is the first episode in Season 2 (yay!) and the first in a three-episode miniseries on testing.

Why is this podcast important? Some students assume they have to take the SAT or ACT or that all schools require these tests for all students–but that just ain’t true, as Bob will tell you. In fact, Bob’s got a list of test optional schools that he updates regularly, which I’ll let him tell you about.

On this episode we discuss:

Are standardized tests evil?

What are some other standardized test myths that people tend to believe?

To what extent does the SAT or ACT measure what students need to know in college?

Important statistics from “Crossing the Finish Line,” a book that outlines the research around how well standardized test scores predict actual student performance in life and in college.

What is the difference between “test optional” and “test flexible”?

If students don’t submit standardized test scores, does this have an impact on scholarships and financial aid?

Does applying to a college without a test score hurt a student’s chances?

Advice for students with test scores that are “just okay”

I love the perspective Bob brings and I think this conversation is a great way to begin this little mini-series on testing (and Season 2)! Enjoy.

Website | Twitter | YouTube | Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest

[determomed]

working on my #final for #policyevaluation. still about a week of work left, but making #progress. thank goodness for #titleix. without it, last semster would have bern #impossible to #finish. #gradschoolmomlife #gradstudent #gradschoolpregnantproblems #MPA #publicadministration #optionaltesting #collegeadmissions #fairtesting #totestornottotest (at Beverly, Chicago)

[deniscollins]

SAT’s New ‘Adversity Score’ Will Take Students’ Hardships Into Account

The College Board, the company that administers the SAT exam taken by about two million students a year, will report an “adversity score” of between 1 and 100 on student test results that will be calculated using 15 factors, including the relative quality of the student’s high school and the crime rate and poverty level of the student’s neighborhood, with an average score of 50, and higher numbers mean more disadvantage. If you were an Admissions Officer, would you: (1) base decision solely on test scores or (2) consider the Adversity Score in determining which applicants to accept? Why? What are the ethics underlying your decision?

The College Board, the company that administers the SAT exam taken by about two million students a year, will for the first time assess students not just on their math and verbal skills, but also on their educational and socioeconomic backgrounds, entering a fraught battle over the fairness of high-stakes testing.

The company announced on Thursday that it will include a new rating, which is widely being referred to as an “adversity score,” of between 1 and 100 on students’ test results. An average score is 50, and higher numbers mean more disadvantage. The score will be calculated using 15 factors, including the relative quality of the student’s high school and the crime rate and poverty level of the student’s neighborhood.

The rating will not affect students’ test scores, and will be reported only to college admissions officials as part of a larger package of data on each test taker.

The new measurement brings the College Board squarely into the raging national debate over fairness and merit in college admissions, one fueled by enduring court clashes on affirmative action, a federal investigation into a sprawling admissions cheating ring and a booming college preparatory industry that promises results to those who can pay.

Colleges have long tried to bring diversity of all sorts to their student bodies, and they have raised concerns over whether the SAT, once seen as a test of merit, can be gamed by families who hire expensive consultants and tutors. Higher scores have been found to correlate with students from wealthier families and those with better-educated parents.

“Merit is all about resourcefulness,” David Coleman, chief executive of the College Board, said in an interview on Thursday. “This is about finding young people who do a great deal with what they’ve been given. It helps colleges see students who may not have scored as high, but when you look at the environment that they have emerged from, it is amazing.”

A growing number of colleges, in response to criticism of standardized tests, have made it optional for applicants to submit scores from the SAT or the ACT. Admissions officers have also tried for years to find ways to gauge the hardships that students have had to overcome, and to predict which students will do well in college despite lower test scores.

The new adversity score is meant to be one such gauge. It is part of a larger rating system called the Environmental Context Dashboard that the College Board will include in test results it reports to schools. A trial version of the tool has already been field-tested by 50 colleges. The plan to roll it out officially, to 150 schools this year and more widely in 2020, was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

But the score met instantly with an array of criticisms, from worries that it created a new cast of winners and losers in the admissions process, to concerns that it papered over an inherently flawed test. College counselors said they were swamped with calls from parents on Thursday as word of the new measurement got out.

“Anxiety’s ratcheting up,” said Hafeez Lakhani, a college admissions coach in New York. “People are worried about never being good enough.”

He said he had received emails from parents asking whether their children’s hard work in preparing for the SAT “would be completely negated just because we happen to have some means.”

Mr. Lakhani said that in his view, colleges were already doing a good job of considering adversity, as indicated by rising numbers of first-generation and low-income students, especially at elite colleges.

Others felt that the College Board’s efforts were misplaced. Robert Schaeffer, the public education director of FairTest, a group that is critical of standardized testing, said that if the SAT needed a sophisticated contextual framework to make it valid, then “it’s a concession that it’s not a good test.”

He added that the adversity score would not capture individual situations, like a child who was middle class but whose mother was addicted to opioids. “Mentally adjusting scores based on where a student came from and what obstacles she overcame is common practice,” Mr. Schaeffer said. “It’s this attempt to do it in a quantitative manner that opens up many other issues.”

News of the plan comes amid a sweeping college admissions scandal, in which 50 people across multiple states have been charged. Prosecutors said the scheme included tactics like fraudulently obtaining extra time on ACT or SAT tests, changing test answers and having a ringer take exams for students.

Universities like Harvard, Yale, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Texas at Austin are also facing challenges to their affirmative action policies, either in the courts or through federal investigations. Many schools are preparing for the possibility that a newly conservative Supreme Court will take a hard line on the use of race in admissions decisions. The College Board says race is not factored into adversity scores.

David Hawkins, the executive director for educational content and policy at the National Association for College Admission Counseling, said he believed that overworked admissions officers would welcome a more standardized measure of hardship and disadvantage.

“I think this is done with at least one eye to the legal considerations that admissions officers are subjected to, the long history of lawsuits about race and ethnicity,” Mr. Hawkins said.

Adam Mortara, a lawyer for Students for Fair Admissions, which is suing Harvard for what it says are discriminatory practices against Asian applicants, said he saw the adversity measure as a viable alternative to race-conscious admissions.

“This is what will give them a tool to achieve true diversity when and if they decide to stop using race, or if we’re ultimately successful in getting race out of admissions,” Mr. Mortara said, adding that he was speaking for himself, not his client.

Yale has used the College Board’s new tool for two admissions cycles, said Jeremiah Quinlan, the dean of undergraduate admissions. He said it provided the same context that Yale has been looking at for decades, but does so in a standardized way across schools and applicants that is very helpful.

“There’s nothing wrong with the SAT score,” Mr. Quinlan said. “It just helps contextualize the SAT score for us. When you’re able to see a student’s SAT score and then compare it to the SAT scores of the other students at the school, that can be powerful to identify a truly transcendent student.”

He added, however, that while Yale was seeking race-neutral tools for admission, he did not think they were enough to replace the consideration of race in some cases.

The adversity score is based on data from the Census Bureau, crime data from the F.B.I., and other sources, College Board officials said. It accounts for circumstances like wealthier students going to magnet schools in poorer areas, as well as the reverse. But Mr. Coleman said that these were likely to be outliers.

“It is much more common that poor people live in poor neighborhoods than the wealthy do,” Mr. Coleman said. “But growing up in a neighborhood with less violence gives you advantages in your academic work.”

Mr. Coleman said the tool ignored race because its premise was that race was less of a predictor of success at school than what he called resourcefulness. “It turns out in America that within every racial group — Asian, white, black, Latino — there are large numbers of people who show resourcefulness within very limited circumstances,” he said.

[education30and40blog]

Over 1,700 colleges won’t require SAT, ACT for fall 2023, up from same point last year

See on Scoop.it - Education 2.0 & 3.0

The latest number from FairTest trails a final count of more than 1,800 institutions in 2022's admissions cycle but tracks ahead of a tally from last July.

[inclusiveexcellencecca]

FairTest

The National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest) advances quality education and equal opportunity by promoting fair, open, valid and educationally beneficial evaluations of students, teachers and schools. FairTest also works to end the misuses and flaws of testing practices that impede those goals.

We place special emphasis on eliminating the racial, class, gender, and cultural barriers to equal opportunity posed by standardized tests, and preventing their damage to the quality of education. Based on Goals and Principles, we provide information, technical assistance and advocacy on a broad range of testing concerns, focusing on three areas: K-12, university admissions, and employment tests.

FairTest publishes an electronic newsletter, The Examiner, plus a full catalog of materials on both K- 12 and university testing to aid teachers, administrators, students, parents and researchers.  FairTest also has numerous fact sheets available to educate you on standardized testing and alternative assessment.

[newslookout]

Number of colleges requiring standardized testing will decline: Expert

#collegeadmissions #SAT Akil Bello, Bell Curves Founding Partner & Former CEO, FairTest Director of Advocacy and Advancement, joins Yahoo Finance’s Aarthi Vignesh, Kristin Myers and Alexis Christoforous to discuss outlook on standardized testing for the college application process.

Watch the 2021 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting on YouTube:

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The post Number of colleges requiring standardized testing will decline: Expert appeared first on News Lookout.

source https://newslookout.com/business/number-of-colleges-requiring-standardized-testing-will-decline-expert/

[drjvh]

National Town Hall on Suspending High Stakes Student Testing

National Town Hall on Suspending High Stakes Student Testing

Register now – National Town Hall on Suspending High Stakes Student Testing on 1/26 at 6 p.m. EST w/ Congressman Jamaal Bowman , Dean Julian Vasquez Heilig , Professor Jack Schneider and many more. MC’d by Bob Schaeffer of FairTest and @ilana4regent – register for free here. See all of Cloaking Inequity posts about high-stakes testing here. There is much more work to do, and no doubt, there…

[collegeessayguy]

🎧 Take a listen to this podcast episode, where I sit down with Bob Schaeffer, Public Education Director of FairTest, a non-profit that advocates for better forms of student assessment. Bob’s got a list of test-optional schools that he updates regularly, which I’ll let him tell you about.

SHOW NOTES

This episode is the first episode in Season 2 (yay!) and the first in a three-episode miniseries on testing.

Why is this podcast important? Some students assume they have to take the SAT or ACT or that all schools require these tests for all students–but that just ain’t true, as Bob will tell you. In fact, Bob’s got a list of test optional schools that he updates regularly, which I’ll let him tell you about.

On this episode we discuss:

Are standardized tests evil?

What are some other standardized test myths that people tend to believe?

To what extent does the SAT or ACT measure what students need to know in college?

Important statistics from “Crossing the Finish Line,” a book that outlines the research around how well standardized test scores predict actual student performance in life and in college.

What is the difference between “test optional” and “test flexible”?

If students don’t submit standardized test scores, does this have an impact on scholarships and financial aid?

Does applying to a college without a test score hurt a student’s chances?

Advice for students with test scores that are “just okay”

I love the perspective Bob brings and I think this conversation is a great way to begin this little mini-series on testing (and Season 2)! Enjoy.

Website | Twitter | YouTube | Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest

[opedguy]

University of California Ends SAT/ACT Testing

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.com), May 22, 2020.--Following the lead of other private and state universities around the country,   62-year-old University of California Chancellor Janet Napolitano finally called a U.C. Regents vote whether or not the nation’s largest public university system would end use of SAT and ACT testing for admissions. Test makers like London-based Pearson and Princeton, N.J.-based Educational Testing Service have long advocated standardized testing as the best way to predict college success, usually defined by Grade Point Average [GPA].  Napolitano followed a growing body of research indicating that standardized testing favored white applicants, where minorities, especially in poor communities, did worse on the SAT, ACT and other standardized tests.  “The correlation of the SAT and the ACT to the socio-economic level of the student, and in some cases, the ethnicity of the student,” Napolitano said.

            After six-hours of debate the U.C. Regents voted unanimously to approve eliminating standardized testing from the admission process, letting things like grades, recommendations and special projects advance students’ admission process.  Ending standardized testing introduces a more subjective element to the admission process, creating new criteria for admission.  Admissions counselors typically use standardized testing as a cutoff for applicants considered for admission.  Admissions counselors now will be tasked with a more holistic process, weighing more subjective factors to determine eligibility for admission. U.C. Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ advocated ending standardized testing.  Chris noted the discrimination lawsuit by Compton Unified School District alleging racial discrimination against applicants with disabilities, low income, racial and ethnic minorities.

            With Paul Singer’s Operation Varsity Blues college admission cheating scandal fresh on everyone’s minds, it weighed in deciding to end standardized testing. While not openly discussed, well-heeled families pay test takers to fraudulently take admission tests. U.C.’s Academic Senate College Testing Task Force disagreed with making SAT/ ACT tests optional, believing they predicted college success.   Made up U.C. faculty, the Testing Task Force still thinks SAT/ACT testing predicts college performance better than grades, they now see as inflated.  U.C. faculty wants to create their own admissions test but would end up with the same problems found in standardized testing.   Fair Test Organization, opposed to ending SAT/ACT testing, says standardized tests still predict college performance better than other parameters, including grades, recommendations and special projects.

            Today’s ruling ending SAT/ACT testing by the U.C. Regents was praised by FairTest, the National Center for Fair & Open testing. “Today’s vote by the University of California [U.C.] Regents to phase out SAT/ACT admissions testing requirements at all U.C. campuses is a huge victory for both equity and academic quality, “ said Bob Schaeffer, FairTest’s Interim Executive Director.  Schaeffer thinks that ending standardized testing fixes today’s admission bias for white students over minority and low-income students.  Napolitano insists there’s a SAT/ACT bias against students from minority and low socioeconomic status. “FairTest expects many colleges and universities now in the process of evaluation their own admissions testing mandated to heed the message from California and adopt SAT/ACT-optional policies,” Schaefer said, seeing other colleges and universities following suit.

                Leading the U.C. Regents to back her plan to end SAT/ACT testing, Napolitano has no guidance for admission counselors now thrown into chaos.  When you take out the one objective measure of test performance, you now introduce subjective measures for determining who’s eligible for admission.  Napolitano said the U.S. Regents gave students and admission counselors until 2022 to end SAT/ACT testing completely, making the practice optional until then. For the next two years, U.C. applicants will have the option of using SAT/ACT testing in the admissions process. When that ends in 2022, U.C. admissions will have to come up with a new formula that’s more fair than the standardized testing admission process.  Without some objectivity, it’s going to be difficult for U.C. admissions’ personnel to figure out who’s the appropriate candidate to accept or reject.

            Unless Napolitano can figure out how systematize a fair admissions process post-SAT/ACT testing, the U.C. admissions process could be in chaos going forward.  Expecting U.C. Regents to contract out for a new admissions test would put U.C. right back in the same dilemma:  How to deal with minority and low-income students.  Beyond that, U.C. faculty and curriculum have always leaned toward math, science and technology, leaving faculty in a quandary how to screen to accept the best-and-brightest students for those majors.  Burdening U.C. faculty with creating a new admissions test would repeat the same injustice now blamed on standardized testing. Certain majors like math, science, engineering and technology require students to have certain proficiency in math and science, something measured on standardized tests.  U.C. admissions now have the burden of creating a fair admissions process.

About the Author  

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma

[womenofcolor15]

Colleges & Universities Consider Dropping The SAT Requirement In a MAJOR Shakeup + College Board Says A Digital SAT Is Possible

The SATs are canceled for June, but there will be a digital version of the test coming this fall if colleges and universities don’t reopen. Also, some colleges and universities have already dropped the requirement for fall 2021 admissions. And this huge decision may shakeup the whole higher ed landscape.  Deets inside…

Higher education will look different for rising seniors. SATs scheduled for June have been canceled and many colleges & universities are dropping the requirement for fall 2021 admissions in response to the Coronavirus outbreak.

The College Board and ACT Inc. - who administer the SAT & ACT - announced the SAT & ACT scheduled for June has been canceled.

"To keep students safe, and in alignment with public health guidance and school closures across 192 countries, we will not be able to administer the SAT or SAT Subject Tests on June 6, 2020," the College Board said in a statement Wednesday.

The organization said the next SAT will be administered in August, IF possible.

After the cancellation, several universities are reportedly suspending the standardized test requirement or some schools are making it optional for fall 2021 admission due to the pandemic.

CNN reports:

In total, about 51 universities and colleges have dropped the ACT/SAT requirement for at least fall 2021 in recent months, according to a list by the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, or FairTest, a nonprofit organization working to end the misuse of standardized testing.

They include Boston University, which announced it's going test-optional for students applying for the fall 2021 and spring 2022 semesters, and the University of California, which said all nine of the schools in its system would suspend the requirement for students applying for fall 2021. Some schools are going test-optional for even longer, as is the case with the extremely competitive Tufts University, which announced it would make the tests optional for a three-year period.

Others, including Tulane University, all Oregon public universities, the University of Washington, Scripps College, Northeastern University and Texas Christian University have all made testing optional for fall 2021 or longer.

If schools aren’t reopened by the fall, students will be able to take the SAT from home.

The College Board said that while this would be the first time SATs would be taken by students from home, it would not be the first time the test is administered digitally, adding it had already been done in several states and districts over the past year.

"Like the paper test, a digital, remote version of the SAT would measure what students are learning in school and what they need to know to be successful in college," it said.

Also, Advanced Placement (AP) exams would also be taken digitally by students this spring.

This is our new normal, sadly.

Photo: Photo Hall/Shutterstock.com

[Read More ...] source http://theybf.com/2020/04/16/sats-canceled-for-june-colleges-universities-consider-dropping-the-requirement-college-bo

[edc-crossfit]

The range of motion standards define a repetition of a movement. It is pass/fail, black/white, you either hit it or you do not. For example, the ROM for a pull up, is FULL arm extension at the bottom with your chin finishing clearly over the bar. WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT ROM? Hitting consistent and universal ROM defines movement, gives a standard, and develops strength through the full range. CrossFit selects range of motion standards to ensure that strength is developed through the entire movement. We do not just want to be strong in a limited range, we want to have strength through the full range. Hitting ROM further allows for consistency in performance. If you perform a movement to a set standard every time, it gives you comparable data, which helps you track meaningful progress. How else would it be fair? It may seem arbitrary, but you have to define a movement somehow! #rangeofmovement #ROM #crossfit #strength #crossfittraining #progress #testingfitness #fairtest #health #wellness #gym #boxlife #alton #hampshire #edccrossfit #linkinbio https://ift.tt/2O2WW69

[crusaderce-archived]

“let me go. i must go.”

Fairtest Starters || Accepting

On with this again. Why Ferid had insisted to give Krul’s supervision to him, Crowley shall never figure out. It was not like it was a problem, she was easy to handle when drained of blood. But still… 

     …it was uncomfortable.

❝Forgive me, Queen. — But that is impossible, whatever Ferid is planning. You’re involved, and I’d rather not get on his bad side for letting his prisoner escape.❞

[yayaboozle]

It's not standardized tests educators hate, it's accountability

It’s not standardized tests educators hate, it’s accountability

Education Week likes to frustrate me in the morning. Reading their article today about the retreat of the anti-testing suburban opt-out movement, I should have been happy, but a few word-bytes in it are restating flimsy complaints about the testing of public school students and that put vinegar in my coffee.

I despise vinegar.

There was the superintendent in Bedford, New Hampshire who said: “I…

[livioacerbo]

More Colleges Than Ever Have Test-Optional Admissions Policies

More Colleges Than Ever Have Test-Optional Admissions Policies Published on January 11, 2018 at 03:41PM Back in the 1980s, Bates College and Bowdoin College were nearly the only liberal arts colleges not to require applicants to submit SAT or ACT test scores. On Jan. 10, FairTest, a Boston-based organization that has been pushing back against … Continue reading “More Colleges Than Ever Have…

[prelawland]

Lawsuit Against The College Board For AP Exam Glitches

By Issalina Sagad, Temple University, Class of 2022

May 25, 2020

For many high schoolers around the world, everything they have learned in their AP classes are put to the test for two weeks every May. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the College Board is now administering the exams online for the first time ever. This untested method raised several concerns for parents, students, and counselors alike from accessibility issues to possible glitches during the exam. During the first week of AP testing, thousands of students were unable to submit their test answers and have no choice but to retake the exam in June. Parents, on behalf of their students, and the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest), have filed a class action lawsuit against the College Board to score the answers and seek “compensatory damages in an amount that exceeds $500 million”. For full article please visit

Students Sue The College Board For AP Exam Glitches at Pennsylvania PreLaw Land