Considerations for College Admissions Testing

Atkinson and Geiser (2009) make a strong argument for moving to a new form of college admissions testing using curriculum-based achievement tests. In making their case, however, they exaggerate the weaknesses of current tests such as the ACT and SAT by minimizing these tests' predictive utility and claiming a stronger relationship to socioeconomic status measures than is justified. Although some of the features that they would like admissions tests to have, such as providing a strong signal to students, are indeed desirable, the tight alignment of admissions tests to college preparatory courses in high school is unlikely to be achieved on a national level without a national curriculum.