Reader TTS

Share article Remove Save to favorites Save to favorites Print Email Facebook LinkedIn Twitter Copy URL

A new study commissioned by the National Association for College Admission Counseling raises questions about the role of college-entrance-exam coaching in the admissions process.

The report summarizes existing research that shows that coaching for college-entrance exams like the SAT and the ACT generally produces only modest score improvements. But NACAC’s survey of

its member colleges “unexpectedly revealed” that “in a substantial minority of cases,” colleges use specific score cutoffs in their admissions decisions, or consider a small increase in

entrance-exam scores significant enough to affect a candidate’s chances of admission.

Given the significance that some colleges assign to even small test-score increases, the NACAC reiterates a concern raised by its testing commission: “the inequality that may result from

uneven access to test-preparation resources.” The author of the study, Derek Briggs, an assistant professor of quantitative methods and policy analysis at the University of Colorado at

Boulder, cautions admissions officers to “be careful about the use of SAT or ACT scores to make fine-grained distinctions between applicants” because modest differences “could be explained

by measurement error, differential access to coaching, or both.”

Education Week who covered national news and features. twitter email linkedin

A version of this news article first appeared in the High School Connections blog.