2024-04-13
5 分钟[MUSIC]
My name is Emi Niedveld,
and I am a journalist and the author of Acceptance, a memoir.
For the last 15 years of my life,
I have thought back to studying for standardized tests with this warm affection.
I think that it's important that standardized tests remain an option for students to submit because it is one path to college when some of the other paths fail.
The Ivy League universities,
they are now changing their tune on standardized testing.
During the pandemic,
many colleges dropped the requirement to submit SAT or ACT scores.
Then Dartmouth required standardized tests following an analysis that they did that showed that the same students coming from a lower income background who were supposed to benefit from test optional policies were actually being harmed by it.
Harvard University is planning to reinstate standardized test scores for admissions requirements and it follows some of its peers after a pause caused by the pandemic.
[MUSIC]
When I saw the news,
I was pretty surprised at first because I feel like the zeitgeist has been so anti standardized tests.
For example, students generally do not like taking them.
Parents complain about how stressful they are.
And there are concerns about equity and whether these tests are really fair to students who are coming from different backgrounds,
especially because a high score is associated with wealth and with racial privilege.
At the same time, I really liked these tests as a college applicant.