Amid virus outbreak, Florida universities should scrap the SAT for current juniors (maybe even forever)

SAT Exam in WOoden blook letters on US flag.

Some 1 million 11th graders missed the opportunity to take the SAT for the first time this spring, creating a potentially insurmountable disadvantage for college admissions next year.

The challenges facing those mostly 16- and 17-year-old students are so prevalent, many universities across the nation are waiving SAT requirements for entrance consideration. Florida universities should do the same.

With spring testing canceled in many locations, hundreds, likely thousands of high school juniors missed the opportunity to take the SAT for the first time. The College Board, which owns the SAT, isn’t scheduling more testing until August and it’s possible that testing will also be affected, if not postponed.

The College Board added an additional testing date in August to account for missed tests and will offer a school day test in the fall since that didn’t happen this school year. They’re also considering digital tests, which could present security and access issues.

Even still, juniors have limited opportunity to take the test before college applications begin next school year and it puts them at a disadvantage for preparing for the test as previous lessons fade from memory.

College-bound students should not be punished for a pandemic that has already taken so much from them — proms, extracurricular activities and social interaction in general.

Further, the ongoing challenges presented with social distancing in the age of coronavirus will disproportionately affect students in low-income households or whose parents have taken a financial hit from lost jobs or reduced wages.

Those students were already at a disadvantage.

A 2015 analysis by Inside Higher Ed, found the lowest average SAT scores for both the math and reading sections of the test came from students in families with incomes less than $20,000. The best performers came from families with more than $200,000 in household income.

The virus is exacerbating that disparity.

Last year’s graduating class saw 2.2 million students taking the SAT. This year’s numbers, because of virus-related shutdowns, are likely to be far lower.

Canceling SAT requirements for college admission is not only the right thing to do for this year’s juniors, it also represents a valuable opportunity to explore whether the standardized testing requirements should be eliminated or scaled back permanently.

Florida public school students can take the test once for free, but subsequent testing cost about $50 per test. Public schools offer some free SAT prep options but are far more limited than private services that guarantee results.

Students this year have already missed out on free prep options as schools have closed, leaving affluent students with an even bigger advantage than they already had.

Private prep courses can be pricey. Kaplan, one of the largest prep providers, has courses that begin at $499, a reduced price from what had been $899. And those are only the starting prices for basic services. The more money families have to throw at tutoring, the more likely a student is to perform well on the test.

Low-income families don’t have that option.

There is a nationwide movement, spearheaded by the group Fair Test, to eliminate standardized testing, including for college admissions.

The current standard, one that has been in place for generations, is set up to benefit those who can afford rigorous prep over those who cannot.

Look no further than last year’s massive college admissions scandals that saw an investigation take down wealthy parents who had paid their children’s way into top colleges, yanking opportunity from children of less affluent families who might have earned their way into schools through hard work, not mommy and daddy’s wealth.

The coronavirus pandemic offers an opportunity to consider whether the SAT model is merely a legal way of furthering that disparity.

Fair Test, in its data tracking of schools that have conducted pilot programs eliminating or reducing reliance on SAT or ACT scores in admission standards, found that many schools never went back to the old model.

They are hopeful schools who have already temporarily paused testing requirements will do the same.

Yet Florida’s public universities have so far been silent on the issue. Now is the time to start that conversation so worried students and parents can have clarity and peace of mind as they navigate already stressful waters. It’s also the time to address long-standing disparities hinged on income levels that have nothing to do with a child’s ability to learn and succeed.

In 2020, access to higher education should be based on hard work and dedication, not a parents’ income. For too long generational poverty has plagued this nation. Perhaps COVID-19 provides a silver lining by forcing colleges and universities to reevaluate outdated models that, whether intentionally or not, disproportionately favor rich kids on the backs of poor kids.