Some Thoughts on a World Without Tests

Abstract

Standardized test scores have been a critical component for admissions decisions for more than a century, but during the time of COVID the gathering of examinees into large halls for supervised and standardized test administration has become unwise and has been discontinued. Admissions decisions have continued anyway without them. Some schools are debating making the change permanent. In this note we discuss the wisdom of such policies invoking historical wisdom. We conclude that when making important decisions about students, inevitably errors will intrude whether test scores are used or not. Bad decisions can still be made using test scores, but they can be made more easily without them.