The Future of Testing Is Anything but Standardized

Last Thursday two highly selective institutions landed on opposite sides of the standardized testing debate. The University of Michigan formally adopted a test-optional policy, four years after resisting the test-optional wave in 2020 and instead allowing alternatives to the SAT and ACT. Meanwhile, Yale University, which had operated with a temporary test-optional policy during the pandemic, adopted its own test-flexible policy. The swap illuminates the complicated patchwork of disparate policies emerging as colleges reassess their pandemic-era testing strategies amid intensifying debates over the purpose and usefulness of standardized exams.