Do the Regents Read the News?

Universities which dropped using the SAT and ACT as part of their admissions process have been reversing their decisions and going back to utilizing these tests. No major universities ever used the tests as the sole criterion for admission. UC, in particular, never used them in that way.

As blog readers will know, when UC was considering dropping the tests, the Academic Senate produced a report noting that in the way UC used the tests, they had the potential to increase enrollment diversity. Nonetheless, the Regents ignored the report - which they had requested - and dropped the tests.

Are the Regents now ignoring the news of other universities reversing course? Example:

Students applying for the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Whiting School of Engineering will have to submit SAT or ACT scores beginning with those seeking admission for the fall 2026 semester, the university said on Friday. The policy change does not affect The Peabody Institute, which offers undergraduate degrees in music and fine arts. Students applying for fall 2025 admission are encouraged, but not required, to submit test scores.

Johns Hopkins was among many universities nationwide that stopped requiring standardized test scores during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hopkins announced a “test-optional” policy in June 2020. The policy was extended in February 2022, according to a university spokesperson. Test scores are an “imperfect” measure, according to a review published by Hopkins, but “stand out as a significant quantitative metric to assess the likelihood of students’ academic success” at the university.

“Test scores and GPA are just two components of the overall process, considered in context with multiple other factors, including an applicant’s circumstances and environment,” the spokesperson said in an email.

Some other institutions, like Yale University, have also recently announced they will once again require standardized test scores...

Full story at https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/higher-education/johns-hopkins-test-scores-LFWY5WNDDVHE3MJRI2ENG55ZFA/.

Reversing direction would suggest (Horrors! Horrors!) that a mistake was made. But apparently others are capable of doing it. Just saying...