Test tinkering: TEA schools could adopt SAT while colleges reduce its role

Texas officials have long struggled with how best to evaluate student performance, and how to use that process to evaluate teachers and campus administrators as well. The Texas Education Agency currently utilizes the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness — STAAR — tests that change every few years as curricula and test scores change. STAAR is a big part of students’ academic progress; passage of the certain tests is required in order to pass certain grades.

STAAR always has had its share of critics; some say the tests don’t adequately reflect whether students are performing at grade level, others say the stakes are too high and schools end up “teaching to the test” instead of providing more complete and rounded courses.

Some state officials now suggest tying the STAAR more closely to the SAT, a test many high school students take as a college entrance exam. Proponents of the idea say that should be the STAAR’s goal — ensuring that students are prepared for the demands of higher education.

If that idea ever had merit, it certainly doesn’t now.

Most current government officials, and most educators, grew up learning that pursuing a college degree was a primary goal, and all students should do so. In recent years, however, many people, including economists, have begun to question whether the skyrocketing cost of attending college is justified given the much slower increase in wages, as well as an acute shortage of trades, crafts and other occupations that could offer good salaries without the need for a degree, perhaps only professional certification.

While the SAT remains popular among educators — many high schools in the Rio Grande Valley and elsewhere require all seniors to take it — it, and other exams such as the ACT, are losing popularity among universities.

Many institutions waived the SAT requirement during the COVID-19 pandemic, so that students wouldn’t have to sit in crowded classrooms to take the test. As the viral threat wanes, many schools have announced that they don’t consider the test as important anymore. Many will be SAT optional, accepting and evaluating scores if they get them, but not requiring them as part of the application process.

Universities point out that such scores aren’t as important under the current evaluation process. Decades ago the institutions published minimum SAT and ACT scores for admission; today, class ranking is more important. State law requires all state-funded institutions to accept all students who were in the top 10% of their graduating classes and some schools have widened that window, to the top 30%, for example.

The growth of dual-enrollment classes, in which high school students take college-level courses and earn college credit, has changed the admissions process. Students who take such courses no longer are new applicants to universities, but transfers from the college or university that provided those dual-enrollment classes.

The SAT remains a great way to measure a student’s readiness for the rigors of college. As many universities start moving away from the test, however, it doesn’t seem a good time to make it the guidepost for our state’s public school students.