The role of standardized tests in college admissions: Test-Optional admissions

This article examines the rise of ‘‘test-optional’’ college admissions policies since the 1990s. I argue that the rationalization of college admissions policies after World War II contributed to the rise of ‘‘meritocratic’’ stratification (in policy) and standardized tests, like the SAT, but it also led to the expansion and legitimation of the roles of student and school personhood in the admissions process. Schools more committed to enlarged conceptions of student personhood are more likely to adopt a test-optional policy, in order to recruit students who fit the distinctive characteristics of their school identity. To test the argument, I use a comprehensive data set of 1,640 colleges and universities in the United States and discrete-time event history models from 1987 to 2015. I also assess alternative arguments that emphasize economic or prestige-driven motives. Liberal arts colleges and schools committed to several dimensions of student personhood are more likely to adopt test-optional policies, net of other factors.

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A Good Sentencing Precedent is Hard to Find

Federal Sentencing Reporter ◽

10.1525/fsr.2020.32.3.138 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 32 (3) ◽

pp. 138-144

Author(s):

Brian A. Jacobs

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Significant Role ◽

College Admissions ◽

The Body ◽

Federal Law ◽

Criminal Cases ◽

Federal Sentencing

In federal criminal cases, federal law requires that judges consider the sentences other courts have imposed in factually similar matters. Courts and parties, however, face significant challenges in finding applicable sentencing precedents because judges do not typically issue written sentencing opinions, and transcripts of sentencings are not readily available in advanced searchable databases. At the same time, particularly since the Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in United States v. Booker, sentencing precedent has come to play a significant role in federal sentencing proceedings. By way of example, this article discusses recent cases involving defendants with gambling addictions, and recent cases involving college admissions or testing fraud. The article explores the ways the parties in those cases have used sentencing precedent in their advocacy, as well as the ways the courts involved have used sentencing precedent to justify their decisions. Given the important role of sentencing precedent in federal criminal cases, the article finally looks at ways in which the body of sentencing law could be made more readily available to parties and courts alike.

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Fear of a School-to-Deportation Pipeline: How Teachers, Administrators, and Immigrant Students Respond to the Threat of Standardized Tests and Deportation

Urban Education ◽

10.1177/00420859211026403 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 004208592110264

Author(s):

Patricia Maloney ◽

Duke W. Austin ◽

SaunJuhi Verma

Keyword(s):

Criminal Justice ◽

Standardized Tests ◽

Justice System ◽

Immigrant Students ◽

Zero Tolerance ◽

School Authority ◽

Funding Sources ◽

Criminal Justice Systems ◽

Authority Figures

Existing studies evaluate zero tolerance policies and the school-to-prison pipeline. Additional research identifies the role of criminal justice systems in deporting immigrants. Our work bridges these two literatures by discussing how immigrant students navigate the criminal justice system within schools. Using interviews with immigrant students, teachers, and administrators, we address the question: How is the school-to-deportation pipeline maneuvered by stakeholders? Our study identifies how school authority figures react to and even use the fear of the pipeline to (1) either protect students from becoming criminalized or (2) exclude students from standardized exam participation so as to maintain funding sources.

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Revisiting the Role of Worries in Explaining the Link Between Test Anxiety and Test Performance

Educational Psychology Review ◽

10.1007/s10648-021-09601-0 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Frieder L. Schillinger ◽

Jochen A. Mosbacher ◽

Clemens Brunner ◽

Stephan E. Vogel ◽

Roland H. Grabner

Keyword(s):

University Students ◽

Standardized Tests ◽

Test Anxiety ◽

Test Performance ◽

Inverse Relationship ◽

Curvilinear Relationship ◽

General Intelligence ◽

Mathematical Competencies ◽

And Performance

AbstractThe inverse relationship between test anxiety and test performance is commonly explained by test-anxious students’ tendency to worry about a test and the consequences of failing. However, other cognitive facets of test anxiety have been identified that could account for this link, including interference by test-irrelevant thoughts and lack of confidence. In this study, we compare different facets of test anxiety in predicting test performance. Seven hundred thirty university students filled out the German Test Anxiety Inventory after completing a battery of standardized tests assessing general intelligence and mathematical competencies. Multiple regressions revealed that interference and lack of confidence but not worry or arousal explained unique variance in students’ test performance. No evidence was found for a curvilinear relationship between arousal and performance. The present results call for revisiting the role of worries in explaining the test anxiety-performance link and can help educators to identify students who are especially at risk of underperforming on tests.

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Predictive Validity of College Admissions Test Scores for American Indian Students

The Journal of Psychology ◽

10.1080/00223989709603548 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 131 (5) ◽

pp. 572-574 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

J. Daniel House ◽

Edward J. Keeley

Keyword(s):

American Indian ◽

Predictive Validity ◽

Test Scores ◽

College Admissions ◽

Admissions Test ◽

American Indian Students ◽

Indian Students

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Reciprocal Teaching: A Review of the Research

Review of Educational Research ◽

10.3102/00346543064004479 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 64 (4) ◽

pp. 479-530 ◽

Cited By ~ 299

Author(s):

Barak Rosenshine ◽

Carla Meister

Keyword(s):

Standardized Tests ◽

Effect Size ◽

Cognitive Strategies ◽

Reciprocal Teaching ◽

Future Research ◽

Journal Articles ◽

Unpublished Studies ◽

Comprehension Tests

Reciprocal teaching is an instructional procedure designed to teach students cognitive strategies that might lead to improved reading comprehension. The learning of cognitive strategies such as summarization, question generation, clarification, and prediction is supported through dialogue between teacher and students as they attempt to gain meaning from text. This article is a review of sixteen studies on reciprocal teaching, which include published studies found in journal articles and unpublished studies indexed in Dissertation Abstracts International. All the studies included in this review were quantitative in methodology. When standardized tests were used to assess comprehension, the median effect size, favoring reciprocal teaching, was .32. When experimenter-developed comprehension tests were used, the median effect size was .88. We also discuss the role of cognitive strategies in enhancing comprehension, the strategies that were most helpful, instructional approaches for teaching cognitive strategies, the quality of the dialogue during reciprocal teaching, and suggestions for future research and practice.

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