2,021+
Test-Optional/Test-Free Schools for
Fall 2027
Overwhelming majority of Colleges and Universities Remain Test-Optional or Test-Free for Fall 2027 Applicants.
Despite news reports focusing on a few colleges that have returned to testing, 90% of colleges have retained or extended their testing policies including: Amherst College, Emory University, Tufts University, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, University of Southern California, Williams College, and the entire University of California, CalState, CUNY and SUNY systems.
FairTest Report: Why College Admissions Should Remain Test Optional or Test Free
With the pushback of certain media outlets and reinstitution of standardized test requirements by an exceedingly small number of competitive colleges, we thought it a good time to respond to arguments made in favor of testing, and lay out arguments and compile studies, data, and resources in favor of test optional and test free admissions.
FairTest and Center for Innovation in Education Spearhead Effort to Remake Accountability
We have teamed with CIE on a project to move school accountability away from its current test-based compulsion paradigm to a system rooted in community trust and built through mutual assent of participants. Our new project, Education Accountability Remade, examines the basic assumptions (or “tentpoles”) of the current system and argues they can sustain a new model without the stagnation and harm of the current one.
Papers explaining the vision, addressing the problem of community trust, and arguing for ways other than reliance on test scores to demonstrate and remedy educational inequity through the legal system are available, with papers on the issues of system capacity and assessment comparability to follow. Check them out!
