When Headlines Highlight an Admissions Conundrum

**The views expressed in this article are my personal views and do not represent the official position of MSU Denver or ACUPA.**

In an episode of Cops meets Desperate Housewives, FBI agents escorted Felicity Huffman from her Hollywood Hills home with guns drawn. Huffman reportedly pled guilty to paying $15,000 disguised as a donation to a test proctor to falsify her daughter’s SAT scores after paying an additional $250,000 in bond, suggesting the price of admission has gone up. While critics argue that standardized tests, such as the SATs and ACTs, do more to uphold cultural and economic hegemonies than to promote student success,¹  many colleges still require standardized testing to decide admission of applicants. Dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues” by the FBI, this situation once again raises the question if standardized testing is a valid factor in college admissions.

Metropolitan State University of Denver’s student-retention data suggests that a student’s grade point average (GPA) is a better predictor of student success than a standardized test score, said MSU Denver Director of Recruitment Morgan Raleigh, M.A. “A high GPA suggests that a student is capable of succeeding over time rather than at one point in time,” said Raleigh, a trait necessary for persistence to graduation and launching a career.

Yet, a recent request from a parent of a home-schooled student with a 4.0 GPA to waive MSU Denver’s test-score requirement brought up MSU Denver’s standardized test policy. The parent did not want her daughter to participate in standardized testing as a matter of ethical principle. Vive la résistance!

With its open-access mission, MSU Denver’s approach to standardized testing is flexible. According to State of Colorado statute, MSU Denver admits anyone age 20 and older who holds a high school diploma or equivalent. Applicants age 19 and under are reviewed holistically. For instance, if a student has a low ACT score but shows other indicators of success, the student will likely be admitted. From a policy standpoint, having multiple factors to make admissions decisions by seems key.

“More and more schools [like MSU Denver] are moving towards using self-reported info from students to determine admission,” said MSU Denver Executive Director of Admissions and Outreach Vaughn Toland, M.A. “National research has shown that self-reported info, such as GPA and test scores, is at least 96% accurate.”

Being open access, however, is not without its challenges. MSU Denver continues to develop supplemental instruction programs, such as stretch versions of English composition and algebra, along with peer mentoring for classes with high drop/withdraw/failure (DWF) rates, to support students who need extra help with fundamentals like writing and math.

“We are defined not by who we exclude, but by who we include,” said MSU Denver President Janine Davidson, Ph.D., at her presidential inauguration.

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¹ Starr, J. (2017). The paradox of standardized testing. Phi Delta Kappan 99 (3), 72-73.