The back-to-the-SAT bandwagon rolls on. As swiftly as they adopted the chief in dropping the standardized take a look at as an admission requirement, the elite colleges are reversing course. The Massachusetts Institute of Expertise was an early re-adopter, again in 2022. Earlier this yr, Dartmouth adopted swimsuit. In February, Yale hopped aboard. Brown joined them this month, and though different Ivies say they’re holding agency on maintaining the SAT non-obligatory, information studies counsel that Penn, too, would possibly quickly be headed again to the long run.
It appears more and more clear that the anti-SAT motion was only a fad. Like many fads, this one had folks becoming a member of in with out taking the time to suppose issues via. The willpower to do one thing about racial injustice was within the air and activists had been campaigning in opposition to standardized exams for years. They made a straightforward goal — and as soon as one or two colleges dropped them, following alongside was the trail of least resistance.
It’s referred to as the bandwagon impact — the tendency to do what different individuals are doing with out pausing to determine whether or not these others are proper. The faculties now reversing course acted too quick in dropping the exams, with out the considerate consideration that increased schooling ought to exemplify.
This bandwagon impact was first famous in politics, however latest many years have seen a deluge of papers utilizing the speculation to investigate the habits of customers. Establishments, too, wish to climb on bandwagons. A much-cited 2000 research discovered that companies that undertake stylish administration methods are usually extra admired, even when the improvements don’t yield higher outcomes in comparison with friends. A 2020 literature overview reveals little has modified.
Bandwagon pondering is forgivable when individuals are deciding which sweater to purchase or which nation to go to. Nevertheless it’s troubling that establishments of upper studying must be so hasty to affix the gang.
In explaining the college’s long-expected choice to reinstate a standardized take a look at requirement for candidates, Brown’s provost put it this fashion: “Our evaluation made clear that SAT and ACT scores are among the many key indicators that assist predict a scholar’s potential to succeed and thrive in Brown’s demanding tutorial atmosphere.”
The unhappy half is that we already knew that. We additionally knew, as many an analyst has currently identified, that the exams had been a assist — not a hindrance — in diversifying the campus. Absolutely the universities that rushed to desert them had been conscious of their utility; in the event that they didn’t know, disgrace on them for not troubling to seek out out. The re-adopters all commissioned formal research previous to reversing themselves. However the time to undertake evaluation was earlier than deciding to drop the exams within the first place. As an alternative — because the bandwagon impact predicts — faculties hopped aboard with out making a critical effort to find out whether or not the wagon was rolling in the proper route. All they knew for certain was that they didn’t wish to be left behind.
Don’t get me unsuitable. The exams have their limitations. However they’re increased schooling’s model of Churchill’s mot about democracy: on this world of sin and woe, they’re neither excellent nor all-wise; they’re the worst admission requirement aside from all these others which have been tried infrequently.
Because the over-hasty faculties now sheepishly concede.
I acknowledge that the elite colleges are in a tricky place. They need numerous scholar our bodies, however final yr the Supreme Court docket put a damper on their potential to work instantly towards that finish. I believed the bulk was unsuitable, however the choice is what it’s.
The principle loophole it left was enabling college students to inform tales of how they’d overcome the prices exacted by race. This is smart, provided that for deprived faculty college students, “grit” appears to be a powerful predictor of educational success. (At the least within the first yr.)
However measuring grit is difficult. One promising suggestion that deserves additional research is to check the take a look at scores of candidates with these not on the similar faculty however in the identical ZIP code. In fact, the admission essays may be the very best instruments, besides that now they’re being written by generative AI.
That’s an issue for an additional day. For now, let it suffice to say that the faculties that dropped take a look at necessities, of their rush to showcase their help for variety, acted too precipitously. They’d nothing to information them however the selections of their friends. No one needed to be the child in final yr’s outfit. And they also went together with the gang.
That’s all the time the danger when one hops aboard the bandwagon: Any individual else is within the driver’s seat.
