Grade Inflation Concerns Make the ACT® and SAT® Even More Essential
As we head into the fall semester, many of the same issues that upset the apple cart in the spring of 2020 remain. Schools are beginning the year still contending with COVID-19 pandemic disruptions. The ACT® and SAT® continue to face registration issues. It remains a challenge to secure a Test Day seat. "Aunt Becky" is going to jail.
This college application season (and likely the next few to come) will be unlike any other. Even with seemingly universal “Test-Optional” college admission policies, it is becoming increasingly apparent that test scores will hold more comparative value than ever before. One of the main reasons: grade inflation.
Under the best circumstances, trying to compare students’ grades across regions, states, schools, and even individual classrooms can be an exercise in futility. That said, no one would argue that we are currently in the “best circumstances.” The social, emotional, and logistical impacts have led to many students receiving grades that factor in some degree of grace and flexibility to account for this unprecedented moment. While skewing grades upwards may relieve some of the stress on high school students, it wreaks havoc on admissions counselors trying to use a GPA to get a real sense of a student’s excellence and overall college preparedness.
The Current Educational Landscape Renders Many Arguments Against Grade Inflation Moot
There are plenty of those who decry grade inflation as a boogeyman leveraged to prop up the testing industry. They concede that grades are subjective to a number of factors (teacher practice, grading styles, assessed content, perceived effort, etc.), but still claim that “averaged out they did a better job describing how good students were.” They argue that grades, though imperfect, are a more holistic metric of student performance than a standardized test or college entrance exam.
That said, as students head into the 2020-2021 school year - with its uncertainty and incongruity of remote learning, hybrid models, and socially distanced classrooms - there is an added level of scrutiny that must be applied to the argument that grade inflation doesn’t matter. For many students, both the end of the 2019-2020 school year and at least some portion of the next will be upended by the COVID-19 pandemic.
To contend that the current classes of high school students from across the nation can be compared and contrasted using grades as a reliable measuring stick is dubious at best. Teachers are offering instruction and assessment in ways they were likely never trained to do. Students in remote, hybrid, or otherwise reimagined educational environments are being asked to learn in ways they were not prepared for throughout their grade school years. Heck, some students didn’t even receive actual grades for their final quarters last school year.
Moving forward, many teachers (and even entire districts) are preaching grace and flexibility when it comes to grading and assessment as schools reopen this year. While this will do a lot to help ease anxieties and show compassion for the realities of our current moment, it will do little to create actionable data points for college admissions officers.
Are worries of grade inflation themselves over-inflated? Under normal circumstances, maybe. Now? Definitely not. As such, the ACT® and SAT® remain particularly important additions to students’ college application packages.
The ‘Standardized’ Aspect of Admissions Tests Is Their Most Important Asset
No matter the current landscape, both the ACT® and SAT® help schools contextualize students’ academic performances. While grades, grading scales, pedagogical decisions, assessment styles, and any number of other variables can skew the actual value of a GPA, standardized tests yield a much more controlled metric. This is not to say that standardized tests are perfect, but their value as benchmarks is of increasing importance in times when other measures are less reliable.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: students who are able to demonstrate strong test performances should - even in the “Test-Optional” era.
Of course this is assuming that students are able to actually register for the ACT® and/or SAT®. Between ACT’s® registration website woes and the cancellation of a significant number of August SAT® registrations, the prospects of landing a spot on Test Day remain dubious.
This is where high-quality test prep comes in. When opportunities for retakes (let alone first takes) are scarce, every Test Day performance needs to count. This may mean adjusting your test prep strategies to account for registration issues. Planning for multiple attempts is still smart, but the reality may make that plan unfeasible in reality. Planning for both tests may, in fact, be the better choice.
Thankfully, Clear Choice has you covered with physical and digital materials designed to both legitimize your brand and help students achieve on the ACT® and SAT®. You will have all that you need to assess student needs and tailor personalized growth plans to optimize whatever Test Day opportunities they are able to land.
For more on our custom-branded, student-focused test-prep curricula, click the link below for a free demo and consultation.
