When I was in high school, there was one thing I desperately didn鈥檛 want to do: take the SAT. Who in his right mind wants to spend up to four hours on a weekend taking an exam that seemingly determines the course of your life?
Luckily, I had extremely pushy parents who probably would have disowned me if I had skipped out on the test.
Unfortunately, many high-achieving low-income students 鈥 who are often the first in their families to consider going to college 鈥 don鈥檛 have anybody to push them to do something they really don鈥檛 want to do. As a result, a large number of these college-qualified students don鈥檛 end up taking a college entrance exam.
They may not want to take the exam because they don鈥檛 think they鈥檙e 鈥渃ollege material,鈥 or because they don鈥檛 think they will be able to afford to go to school (and with good reason, as hundreds of four-year colleges require the lowest-income students to pay an amount equal to or greater than half of their families鈥 yearly earnings). They may have trouble getting time off from work on the test day, which is often a Saturday. Or they may not have the means or desire to travel to an unfamiliar high school that is giving the test.
Regardless of the reason, these students are putting themselves at a great disadvantage because most selective colleges won鈥檛 consider admitting applicants who haven鈥檛 taken an entrance exam.
Luckily, there is something that state policymakers can do to alleviate the problem: require all students in the state to take the exam at their own schools during the school week. Seem far-fetched? Well, at least 11 states are already doing it, and a slew of recent studies show that these policies have resulted in increased four-year college enrollment in these states.
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