The race worth running

Competition can motivate and it can dominate.

The race may matter most in sports, but it shouldn't be that way in education.

Our son is a high-school junior, and we've started getting solicitations from admissions test-prep companies.

There's a scramble for admission to the best colleges, with the SAT or ACT as a focal point of anxiety for many parents and students, pushing education more toward competition than learning.

It's gone too far in that direction, so I was pleased to see high-school and college-admissions professionals calling for a move away from the tests.

The National Association for College Admissions Counseling, meeting this week in Seattle, issued a report on the tests. It said test scores shouldn't be used to determine who's eligible for merit aid and that the scores of admitted students shouldn't be used as a measure of the quality of a university.

"Individually, colleges will always try to build the strongest entering classes they can, often as measured by test scores, but collectively they bear a larger responsibility to make the American educational system as good, as fair, and as socially beneficial as possible," the report said.

It also said "test scores appear to calcify differences based on class, race/ethnicity, and parental educational attainment."

Parents of means can spend hundreds on coaching to gain a few points. An entire industry thrives on the tests, and the complex testing process itself is a hurdle for students who don't have help navigating it.

Not to mention that it diverts students from learning to gaming the system.

The National Center for Fair and Open Testing (FairTest.org) said Monday the number of colleges and universities that have made SAT/ACT scores optional for applicants has passed 775.

The University of Washington now considers other factors besides grade-point average and test scores, and this week Washington State University announced changes in the way it selects students.

WSU will automatically admit students who are in the top 10 percent of their high-school class, or who have a grade-point average of 3.5 or better.

John Fraire, vice president for enrollment management, said WSU wanted to relieve some of the stress students have about admission and to downplay the tests. Students will still have to submit test scores, but they will be secondary to school performance.

Fraire said people in the field have known for years that the tests are not the best way to pick students.

His personal experience tells him that too. In 1973, he was one of the first Mexican-American students admitted to Harvard. His test scores were lower than those of most classmates, but he did well anyway.

He said, "Determination, drive and commitment are good indicators of future success," but tests don't measure those factors.

"I'm more interested in finding ways to admit students rather than setting up ways to keep students out," he said. "It's our mission to give people a chance to elevate their lives."

That's a race worth running.

Jerry Large's column appears Monday and Thursday. Reach him at 206-464-3346 or jlarge@seattletimes.com.