Shannon Watkins of the Martin Center focuses on the UNC System’s internal debate over college admissions decisions.
At a time when only 41 percent of college students graduate in four years—and only 56 percent in five years—colleges and universities across the country are phasing out the only truly objective measure of academic excellence and student success in the application process: standardized tests.
Next month, for example, the University of North Carolina Board of Governors (BOG) is set to vote on a policy that would significantly diminish the role of test scores in the admissions process.
To do so, however, would be a blow against academic standards for the 16 UNC schools.
Currently, in order to even be considered for admission at any UNC institution, applicants must have a minimum GPA of 2.5 and an SAT score of 880 or an ACT score of 17. (Meeting the minimum standards does not guarantee students admission to any of the sixteen UNC institutions.) Those standards, however, might be revised by a BOG vote.
The proposed revisions are subtle, but significant: instead of requiring GPA and test scores, the new policy would require a minimum GPA of 2.5 or an SAT score of 1010 (or ACT score of 19).
The proposed policy comes as a controversial pilot program nears its conclusion. In 2014, the board passed a resolution to establish a program to test whether students’ GPA was a better predictor of academic success than standardized test scores. Three UNC system schools participated in the pilot study: Elizabeth City State University (ECSU), Fayetteville State University (FSU), and North Carolina Central University (NCCU). …
… The fact that the pilot students had similar academic outcomes to the rest of the student bodies at each of the universities does not necessarily mean success. That’s because the universities themselves are in large part failing to graduate their students. For example, each of the three universities that participated in the pilot has dismal graduation rates.
