Should high school students be prepping hard for SATs, and ACTs because the one true path to a college merit scholarship runs through those tests? A new report from FairTest (The National Center for Fair and Open Testing) suggests that it’s more complicated than that.
“Merit” Awards: Myths, Realities, & Barriers to Access sets out to look at the “lingering public perception” that most “merit” scholarships are based on major test scores.
It’s a perception that the testing companies and the test prep industry “aggressively promote,” a perception has become more important in marketing the big tests as more and more colleges and universities have made the tests optional or unnecessary for admission. The study found that roughly 80% of all colleges and universities are test optional, with just 9% requiring test scores.
Perceptions about merit scholarships matter because, for the last forty years, states have been shifting scholarship money away from needs-based and towards merit-based programs. Georgia, an extreme example, eliminated needs-based scholarships entirely a decade ago.
Yet the perception that merit scholarships are primarily about tests scores turns out to be incorrect. Of state merit scholarship programs, FairTest found that about half considered test scores. Among merit scholarship programs at “flagship” universities, FairTest found that only about a third required test scores.
While testing fans like to promote the “diamond in the rough” narrative of the under-resourced student who is able to afford college because of their stellar test scores, the report says this story is “ignoring almost 100 years of data, research and studies” about the exam’s “profound racial, gender and family skews.” It’s a shortcoming that the College Board as much as admitted back when it proposed an “adversity score” as a way to “adjust” scores based on student background.
These programs can also become a sort of reverse Robin Hood. As an example, the report points to Florida’s Bright Futures program, which is funded by lottery sales (getting most of their revenue from poor communities) but heavily funds scholarships in wealthier communities.
The mismatch between college testing requirements (falling) and scholarship testing requirements (rising) has resulted, FairTest argues, in financial barriers to college for students with limited resources; they can get accepted to college, but in some cases cannot access financial assistance needed to actually attend. This problem is exacerbated by perception; when students believe that only high tests scores can get them scholarship money, they may not even look for the many merit scholarships that are not test based. Those who are unsure of their ability to score big on the tests may be overestimating how large an obstacle they actually face.
Akil Bello, FairTest’s Senior Director of Advocacy and Advancement, told me that these results surprised him.
I started this project expecting to tell colleges that their reliance on the SAT for scholarships was egregious, inconsistent with admission policy and detrimental to the public good. It turned out what I learned was that one of the pernicious impacts of the testing regime has been to work its way into the public perception in ways that far exceed its actual usage.
So in the end, test scores are still used more for merit scholarships than for actual college admissions, but not nearly as much as people believe, and that perception creates one more barrier to college for students with limited financial resources.
The report offers some recommendations. Decouple financial aid from test scores; at the very least, make admission and scholarship requirements match. Increase transparency for scholarship programs so that it’s easier for families (and guidance counselors) to see what is actually required. And shift the narrative away from the notion that high test scores are the only path to scholarships.
“Now more than ever,” says Bello, “submitting to the testing rat race is a choice. If your student is not a good test-taker or unwilling to devote time and energy to preparing for and taking these non-curricular exams, they can skip out on this routine that has terrorized high schoolers for decades. They can skip out on preparing and testing with the full confidence that the vast majority of educational and funding options will remain open to them.”
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