The College Board is lowering the difficulty of the SAT test once more, to the detriment of all involved

Dartmouth College admitted that after four years of not requiring standardized testing, they have decided to make it mandatory. This decision was made on Feb. 5 and was followed by Yale and Brown later on. Many other top-ranked universities, such as MIT, Georgetown, University of Florida, and Georgia Tech, have already made standardized testing mandatory. The move back to standardized testing is due to the inflation of school grades, the ease of obtaining essays online, and the subjective nature of teacher recommendations.

Renowned cognitive scientist Steven Pinker has shown that SAT scores have been proven to predict a wide range of accomplishments in academics, technology, medicine, and the arts. Despite the evidence supporting standardized testing, the College Board has introduced digital adaptive testing for the SAT in the United States. This online-only test adjusts difficulty levels based on the student’s performance and aims to reduce outcome differences based on race and gender.

There have been concerns about the College Board’s efforts to dumb down the test in the name of equity, as seen in the removal of challenging questions and the standardization of test scores. This approach undermines the purpose of standardized testing in identifying exceptional students for top colleges. The College Board must uphold its mission of promoting academic meritocracy and facilitating the identification of future innovators and leaders in America.

Wai Wah Chin is the founding president of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance Greater New York and an adjunct fellow of the Manhattan Institute.