Florida universities seek to drop ACT/SAT requirement for 2021 admissions

ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida’s public universities want ACT and SAT scores to be optional for students applying for 2021 admission, if the two national exams do not resume a regular testing schedule in August, according to a letter from admissions directors to the state.

The change, if approved, would be temporary but also groundbreaking for Florida’s 12 universities, where minimum scores on the exams are required and high scores are viewed as needed to get into the most-selective state schools.

The Board of Governors, which oversees the state university system, is expected to take up the matter May 5 during a meeting conducted by conference call.

A spokeswoman for the system would not confirm Tuesday which institutions had signed off on the letter asking for the board to suspend its entrance exam requirement. But the University of Central Florida said it had, and John Barnhill, who oversees admissions at Florida State University, said in an email that all of the state institutions wanted to go “test optional” for students applying in the fall.

Dozens of colleges and universities around the country, including the massive University of California system, have decided to adopt such “test-optional” policies amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Both the SAT, the more popular test in Florida for college-bound students, and the ACT have canceled spring tests due to the nation’s health scare. The two national testing organizations plan to resume this summer, but if they cannot, current 11th graders could be at a disadvantage when they start submitting college applications in the fall, the admissions directors said.

“There will not be enough time to get every qualified student to a standardized testing site to complete the assessment, and to do so demonstrating their best test score,” the admissions directors wrote. “These students would have normally taken the assessment for the first time in the spring; they may have missed that opportunity.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3cS2n1y