Test-Optional Policies: Impacts to Date and Recommendations for Equity in Admissions

Abstract

Many institutions were forced by the COVID-19 pandemic to change admissions policies as a response to logistical challenges around testing. However, even as logistical challenges have resolved, pandemic-era changes to higher education testing policies which reduced or eliminated testing requirements have remained in place in many schools. Now, research evidence is beginning to emerge which looks at the effects that reductions to testing requirements are having on undergraduate admissions, making it possible to determine whether those policies are meeting their goals. This review examines the empirical evidence that has been gathered to date to identify trends in the effects of these testing policies and to make recommendations for increasing equity in admissions that institutions may wish to consider as they grapple with another change in higher education admissions: the striking down of race-conscious admissions. We find that test-optional admissions do not benefit equity in all cases, but that some contexts show more promise than others.