My husband and I just finished a minor home renovation, which has made me acutely aware of the value of good customer service: timely service that meets expectations and needs at a fair price and that instills trust. Customer service is a shared relationship. The provider should stand proudly behind its product, but the customer also bears responsibility for clarifying expectations and needs. Let’s consider our relationship with the standardized testing industry.
With only two primary providers, the ACT and the CollegeBoard (SAT), competition in the testing industry is limited, which drives product quality down. In recent years, critics have attacked the ACT and the SAT for printing errors, corruption, security issues, arbitrary essay scores, and inherent unfairness, calling into question the quality of their products and our trust in the industry. These companies bring in hundreds of millions of dollars each year. As customers, we should feel emboldened to seek testing reliability and top-notch service, and, accordingly, a movement is afoot, with widespread demands to abandon the tests as inherently unfair to the poor and with the adoption by colleges of test-optional admission policies.
For now, though, testing is still a mainstay in the college application process, required to earn admission to most highly selective institutions and to qualify for many tuition reductions and scholarships. Standardized testing is used to compare students within and across borders and to measure, with some consistency, academic potential.
In the past few years, despite the movement toward test-optional admissions, I have witnessed an increase in the frequency of testing among my local student population. College counselors are generally encouraging retesting: Eking out another point or two can be a worthy investment with high returns. Meanwhile, the scores of economically-disadvantaged students, those who cannot afford frequent retesting or individualized test prep, reflect and perpetuate, at least to some extent, their financial limitations, hence, the growing concern about the tests’ fairness.
The ACT has responded with three proposed changes to its product:
1. ACT Section Retesting
Beginning in September 2020, the ACT will allow students to register for and take only the sections they have targeted for improvement, without sitting for the entire test, which contains five sections. Students can thereby avoid the risk inherent in retaking a section where they are already pleased with a posted score and where they would prefer not to show regression. They can also save time and money, although rates have not yet been announced for partial testing.
2. ACT Superscoring
Superscoring averages a student’s best section scores (English, math, reading, and science; writing is not included) to achieve a composite superscore (from 1-36), rounded to the nearest whole number. Beginning in September 2020, the ACT will calculate and report this superscore to colleges. Many but not all colleges and students already superscore but without assistance from the ACT.
3. Faster Results with Online Testing on National Testing Dates
By registering for online testing on national testing dates in or after September 2020, students will avoid paper and pencil in favor of a computerized version of the test and then receive their scores in just a few days, rather than within the typical few weeks.
While the ACT’s ploy is to build market share, I applaud its pursuit of a compromise that seeks to improve customer service. I anticipate at least some student benefits from these changes. Whether colleges that do not currently superscore will adapt their policies, whether single-section retesting will benefit the economically disadvantaged, and whether these changes will result in more or less testing for our children is yet to be seen, but most can agree that the status quo in standardized testing is far from ideal and in need of revision, and the ACT has responded.
I urge you to seek to understand the complicated relationship we have with the standardized testing industry and to pursue the best options for your child. Please let me know if I can help.