University Of Maryland System Drops SAT, ACT Testing Requirement

MARYLAND — Students looking to attend a university in Maryland won't likely have to worry about standardized testing as part of the admissions process.

The University Of Maryland System's (USM) Board of Regents voted Friday to drop SAT and ACT requirements to gain admission to its schools.

According to The Daily Record, all but two regents, Andrew Smarick and Louis Pope, voted in favor of the change.

Each university can set its own policies regarding standardized test scores, but most of the 12-member institutions supported the board's policy change, WBFF-TV reported.

For decades, the ACT and SAT have been used as standard screening tools for colleges and universities to determine which prospective students to accept or reject.

Darryll Pines, the president of the University of Maryland at College Park, welcomed the change in policy, arguing that standardized tests have been traditionally biased against people of color.

"This has been known historically, that it’s not a good measure for admissions into universities, and that’s why we have 25 other measures at College Park. I think it’s going to really show a lot of good data over the next three to five years for our system to see what is the best approach," Pines said during the board meeting.

Others who support standardized testing believe that the SAT and ACT help universities gauge whether a student will be successful by showing if they've mastered basic skills, such as math and writing.

Meanwhile, Joann Boughman, USM's senior vice chancellor for academic and student affairs, told the FOX station in Baltimore that a student's grade point average from high school or community college is a much better indicator of success.

The University Of Maryland System isn't the first to drop standardized SAT and ACT testing as a prerequisite for college admission.

According to 19thnews.org, more than two-thirds of colleges and universities won’t require the SAT for admission this year. That includes elite institutions such as Harvard, Stanford and the University of California system, which has dropped the test as an admission requirement permanently.