Louis Volante, Professor of Education at Brock University; Christopher DeLuca, Associate Dean, School of Graduate Studies and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at Queen’s University; and Don A. Klinger, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Te Kura Toi Tangata Division of Education and Professor of Measurement, Assessment and Evaluation at University of Waikato, had a piece published in The Conversation about the potential end of university admissions testing in the United States and elsewhere.

They write:

“Many Grade 12 high school students are now looking ahead to post-secondary studies next fall. Those wishing to attend universities in the United States will see that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the growing shift to test-optional university admissions policies — or scrapping entrance tests altogether. 

Due to COVID-19, many U.S. universities, including Yale, Cornell, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania have announced they won’t require applicants for fall 2021 to write either the SAT or ACT.

But even before the pandemic, entrance examinations were under scrutiny. The University of California voted in May to phase out both the SAT and the ACT as requirements for university admissions, largely due to concerns over racial and cultural bias. Other universities have made similar pronouncements.

Many people are wondering if the COVID-19 pandemic will spell the end of university admission testing altogether, and what the implications are for Canadian universities and the approximately 25,000 Canadian students that attend post-secondary institutions in the United States each year.”

Continue reading the full article here.