Admission
Reed College's Approach to the SAT and ACT Writing Sections
Paul Marthers, Dean of Admission at Reed College
A few years back the SAT and ACT exams changed dramatically. At least on the surface the addition of a third section of the SAT altered a standardized test long known for its 1600-point scoring scale. The SAT, practically a synonym for the college application process, moved to a 2400-point scale, and the ACT added an optional writing exam. Both new writing exams moved to the front row of the application evaluation process at a number of colleges and universities. In response to the changes, students began to ask (and continue to ask) how the Reed admission review process regards the SAT and ACT writing exams. Here is some guidance from inside the Reed admission committee.
Reed continues to take a cautious, evaluative, and, quite frankly, skeptical stance toward standardized writing exams. Until we see evidence that standardized writing exams can offer us significant information that we do not already factor into admission decisions, Reed will not change its approach to evaluating ACT and SAT scores. Reed will continue to place primary emphasis on the SAT I critical reading and math sections and consider the SAT I writing section analogous to a SAT II exam—note that SAT II exams are optional in the Reed admission process. While the former SAT II writing exam existed, Reed recommended, but did not require, submission of it. Likewise, Reed does not, nor does it plan to, require the ACT writing exam for admission. If a student submits an ACT writing exam score, the admission office will look at it but not give it as much weight as the overall ACT composite score. There are reasons, which I will get to later, why Reed questions the value of any standardized test that purports to measure writing ability.
  |
Test scores have a mixed history at predicting academic success at small liberal arts colleges. For example, Bates College in Maine discovered 20 years ago that SAT's were of no value in its admission process and stopped requiring them. Since then dozens of respected national liberal arts colleges have made submission of standardized tests like the SAT and ACT optional, and the list seems to grow by the handful each year. Internal research studies at Reed show that grades and the rigor of courses selected in high school are the best predictors of success in the College's curriculum. SAT and ACT scores only add marginally to the predictive matrix, and are most helpful when one of the sub-scores is a statistical outlier on the low end. Like many other selective liberal arts colleges, Reed also finds that the math SAT and ACT section scores help predict a student's capacity for success in college-level courses in the sciences, math, and certain heavily quantitative social sciences such as economics.
Reed, like other rigorous liberal arts colleges, has a writing-intensive curriculum. Reed students are far more likely to get assigned analytical papers, lab reports, take-home essay exams, and, of course, a senior thesis than they are to be given multiple choice tests or graded essays administered under severe time constraints. In other words, in the Reed curriculum, the most commonly employed student assessment procedures do not match the format of the SAT or ACT. The same is true of the other liberal arts colleges where I have studied or worked: Bennington, Oberlin, and Vassar. For curricular reasons, Reed's admission committee, which engages faculty and deans in parts of the decision-making process, views the SAT writing section and the ACT writing exam the same way it views all standardized exams; that is, in a holistic context of numerous academic and personal factors and with a healthy degree of skepticism.
In particular, we examine the scores we see from the SAT and ACT writing exams, knowing (as I have stated already) that Reed students will almost never encounter an analogous, time-constrained essay exam in a Reed class. Our concerns about the SAT and ACT writing sections mirror those raised by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). Like the NCTE, we worry that the standardized and time-limited nature of the ACT and SAT essay exams encourage a kind of artificial, mechanized, writing-for-the-test that seems antithetical to the reflective and analytical writing taught in a rigorous liberal arts curriculum. Like the NCTE, we further believe that good writing involves rewriting, something standardized, time limited essay exams do not allow.
The application essays we ask applicants to write and the graded high school writing assignment we ask applicants to submit more accurately reflect the kind of writing students do in Reed courses. From those samples of writing, the Reed admission committee gauges the applicant's facility with written expression and draws conclusions about the applicant's ability to navigate a writing-intensive curriculum successfully. The required essays and graded writing sample also provide the admission committee with a glimpse into the personalities and passions of our applicants. At a college that prizes independent thought, inculcates analytical acumen, and cultivates intellectual rigor, what the applicant selects to write about, what the applicant chooses to send, and how well those essays are written helps convey readiness for Reed far better than the score achieved on a time-limited writing exam.
That does not mean that the ACT and SAT writing exams are without merit. Certainly some of the skills that produce a fine score on the ACT and SAT essay sections are applicable to the writing required in a challenging liberal arts curriculum. The grammatical and reading diagnostic sections built into such standardized measures of writing ability do provide useful information about each applicant's mastery of the foundation fundamentals on which good analytical writing rests. Still, overall the ACT and SAT writing exams provide another piece in the puzzle of the admission assessment, a puzzle piece that Reed considers on par with items such as extracurricular involvement, recommendation letters, and Advanced Placement (AP) exam scores (when submitted).
I would be less than honest if I did not say that many long-time admission officers view changes to standardized tests like the ACT and SAT as equivalent to a rearrangement of the chairs on the deck of the ship, rather than an overhaul of the engine below. That may not be a fair or accurate assessment, but it is reflective of the show-me attitude that many of us in college admission take every time the College Board or the ACT announce changes to standardized exams that we know are both valuable and fallible. And finally, to the oft-asked question, what does Reed consider to be a competitive ACT or SAT score, consider that the mid-50% range for incoming students is 28 to 32 on the ACT and 1290 to 1470 on the SAT. But there is always room for exceptional students with intellectual passion whose scores fall short of those ranges.
Adapted from Understanding the New SAT, by Paul Marthers, which appeared in the May 25, 2005 issue of Inside Higher Ed.com
