By Kaitlyn Hills

What’s the newest extracurricular taking up teenagers’ time? Studying for the SAT. As college admissions offices reinstitute testing requirements, the controversy over whether a single score is an accurate assessment of a student’s intelligence continues. 

One factor that calls into question the SAT’s quality as an evaluatory metric is the disparity in performance between students of different socioeconomic backgrounds. According to the Harvard Gazette, only 25 percent of students from the lowest-earning 20 percent of families take the SAT. Among those students, just 2.5 percent score a 1300 or higher. Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that test takers from families in the top 20 percent of earners were seven times more likely as students in the bottom quintile to score a 1300 or above.

A reason for the underperformance of students from lower-income backgrounds is a lack of access to resources. According to CollegeBoard, high-performing SAT scores strongly correlate with access to resources. Lower-income students often struggle to find resources to aid in test prep, whether in the form of classes, paid tutors or prep books. 

Given these barriers, schools need to adopt an alternative method for measuring students’ college readiness. Portfolio-based assessments, in which a student’s knowledge is evaluated based on samples of work collected over time, offer exactly that. 

This idea is not abstract. The rapid implementation of test-optional college admissions policies during the COVID-19 pandemic showed that an application process without standardized testing is possible. According to a Common App report, the adoption of such a policy has increased the number of applications from first-generation students and underserved communities by over 20 percent. 

Portfolio-based assessments demonstrate students’ critical thinking skills and holistic academic progress in a way that standardized test scores cannot. If colleges and universities are willing to work alongside legislators at the national level, they can implement comprehensive instructions and guidelines to standardize the process. 

Replacing standardized testing with portfolio-based assessments prioritizes underserved communities. It also gives each individual applicant a unique chance to express themselves in their college applications, rather than let a single number stand in for the story of their life.