#EPS518 Twitter Blog #2

“Temple Option will open more doors to a university education”- by Hillel Hoffman

Temple University becomes the first public research university in the Northeast to remove standardized testing as a requirement for undergraduate admissions. After reviewing the U.S. News and World Report Rankings I found that Temple is ranked #58 for top public universities. As ACE (2014) argues in Rankings, Institutional Behavior, and College and University Choice, this ranking may not impact low-income, minority students as they do not typically make college decisions based on rankings. However, the Temple Option may allow them to give Temple University some consideration. Temple decided to make this shift in the admissions process as a result of research that has indicated high school GPA, class rankings, and “noncognitive” factors (students grit, determination, self-confidence) are better determinants for student college success measures (Hoffman). Administrators believe the Temple Option will provide more access to talented students who are not good test takers, first-generation students, and students from underserved communities. Students who have good test scores are still encouraged to go the traditional route by submitting them to the institution. However, students who opt-out of submitting their standardized test scores will respond to “specially designed short answer questions.” There are trained readers who evaluate the responses seeking “motivational and developmental traits.” This plan, however, requires student athletes, home schooled students, and international students who have studied in the United States less than three years to submit test scores. I question the reasoning for this especially if these students are also coming from under resourced backgrounds or have issues with doing well on tests also.

Temple’s Provost affirms the argument that standardized testing “injects socioeconomic biases into the admissions and financial aid equation.” Both student groups that submit test score and those who choose not are eligible for need-based financial aid, merit scholarships, and the school’s honors program. This seems to be the way in which Temple has substantive institutional autonomy in creating solutions toward their commitment to access and diversity as Dee (2006) describes in Institutional Autonomy and State-Level Accountability.

I think the Temple Option is an effective way to increase student diversity and providing students a chance to be educated at a well-known institution. When I was at Syracuse University, I served as a part-time admissions evaluator for undergraduate admissions. Syracuse implemented a new admissions policy, which attempted to seek these same “noncognitive factors” in its applicants. I evaluated applications based on responses in the student’s essays, which were guided by different prompts. There were five categories we used to evaluate students: leadership (involvement in clubs and organizations or family roles), persistence (focusing on any obstacles faced that could have prevented them from excelling and how they persisted or responded ie: financial constraints, homelessness, family death, illness, etc.), community engagement (community service, religious activities, etc.), potential to benefit (based on high school GPA, advanced placement courses, class rank), and strength of character (based on teacher recommendations). While I found issues with ranking student’s “potential to benefit” based on skewed measures, in my opinion, this process allowed us to give students that were not strong test takers, and were of low-income and minority backgrounds a chance. This experience makes me wonder what categories or factors Temple will focus on when evaluating students. Hoffman names other institutions that have engaged in test-optional admissions with my undergraduate institution, DePaul University being listed as one. As I have mentioned in class, I was strong academically in high school with a competitive GPA and class rank, but a very low ACT score. I applied to a variety of institutions and was waitlisted at a few of them, but I was accepted to DePaul. I wish I could remember my question prompts and responses but I strongly believe the responses to those questions are the very reason I was admitted to that institution. So, I agree that the Temple Option will provide access and education opportunities to talented students who would otherwise be overlooked based on limiting standardized testing measures.