Dive Brief:

• Three more states — Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Arkansas — are hoping to join a host of others in ditching state-designed tests for readymade college entrance exams in federal accountability measures.
• While the number of states currently using the SAT for high school accountability weren't immediately available, 11 states are now using the ACT for that purpose.
• But the switch isn’t totally straightforward: New Hampshire and Arkansas have to prove to federal education officials that the exams are of high quality, even though other states already have them in use and the federal government hasn’t released new quality standards in three years.

Dive Insight:

Statewide rollouts of exams like the ACT and SAT could potentially clear one more hurdle out of the way for students who struggle to get to college. The cost and additional time required to take the college entrance exams, on top of school work and other mandated tests, can prove a significant challenge for some students. Some experts say the move could particularly benefit low-income students, some of whom might not have taken the exams in the past.

“They might surprise themselves into making plans for college they might not otherwise have made,” Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative think tank, told the New York Times.

The move can also boost states’ efforts to measure college and career readiness, since the exams are directly tied to college admission. But the move on the part of K-12 is also out-of-sync with trends in higher education, where some schools are moving away from exams to determine admission.

Recommended Reading

Education Week: More States Moving to SAT, ACT for High School Accountability