The University System of Maryland’s board of regents voted recently to pave the way for its 12 universities to remove the requirement for prospective students to provide their SAT or ACT scores for admission.
Although the schools still have the autonomy to set their own admissions standards, Friday’s vote removes the language requiring them to consider test scores within their admissions practices.
According to Joann Boughman, senior vice chancellor for academic and student affairs for the university system, the change comes after heavy consideration and mirrors national trends.
All the schools within the system had already shifted to a test-optional model, many during the coronavirus pandemic, when testing was less available.
“It was not our choice necessarily to go test-optional, but for the last two years, we have dealt with accepting many, many students across our system who did not have SAT or ACT scores,” Boughman said
She added that other factors such as an applicant’s grade-point average are reasonably good, if not better, at predicting success in college.
System spokesman Mike Lurie said the measure passed 11 to 2 with two absences; Andy Smarick and Louis Pope voted against it.
During the meeting, University of Maryland College Park President Darryll J. Pines said standardized testing has a long history of being disproportionate in accessibility to minority communities.
“Persons of color tend to have biases against them by these tests and they don’t get into schools,” Pines said Friday.
Several schools in the Baltimore area, including the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Towson University, University of Baltimore and U-Md. have been test-optional for several years.
Freeman A. Hrabowski III, the longtime president of UMBC, said Friday that he also supports the test-optional model, but stressed the importance of standardized testing overall.
“UMBC has completely embraced this,” she said, “and I’m really excited about what it means for us in terms of serving the students in Maryland and beyond.”